Doug Ford gives hidden raises to all but one member of his PC caucus

Article content

Call it jobs for the boys, and the girls, who make up Doug Ford’s PC Party caucus.

Article content

Ontario’s Premier is responsible for a 78-member caucus and somehow has found a way to give all but one of his MPPs additional roles that come with extra money.

Article content

In addition to Ford’s bloated 30-member cabinet, there are also 38 parliamentary assistants. On Thursday, just before the Easter weekend, Ford shuffled the deck chairs for these assistants, which isn’t something that would ever be of interest in the general public except for the extra cost.

Members of the Ontario Legislative Assembly are paid a base salary of $116,550, an amount that hasn’t gone up since then-premier Dalton McGuinty froze MPP salaries in 2008 in the face of the financial crisis.

To get around this lack of pay increases, governments have increasingly provided their members with these plumb postings, but Ford’s current situation is next level.

Article content

Article content

When MPPs are appointed to serve as parliamentary assistants their pay is bumped up to roughly $140,000, meaning the 38 PAs serving under Ford cost taxpayers close to $900,000 more. Committee chairs earn an additional $16,000, the PCs currently chair six of the eight committees and are co-chairs of the other two.

Cabinet ministers earn a salary of $165,851 per year, meaning the 30 ministers in Ford’s government are costing taxpayers almost $1.5 million extra per year compared to a basic MPP’s salary.

Article content

Jay Goldberg, Ontario director for the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation, points out Ford ran for office on a platform to control the size and cost of government.

“Instead, he’s bloated it larger than ever and appointed a record number of parliamentary assistants to hand out raises to caucus members without being transparent with taxpayers,” Goldberg said in response to the shuffle.

“Ford needs to show leadership and reduce the size of both the cabinet and the number of parliamentary assistants to actually deliver on smaller and more efficient government for taxpayers.”

He should, but this game of smoke and mirrors happens because no one wants to increase pay for MPPs and they play these games to get around that while in office.

Article content

All of this pales in comparison to the high wages paid to MPs in Ottawa.

While MPPs at Queen’s Park haven’t had a raise in 16 years, their counterparts on Parliament Hill receive generous annual raises each April 1. On Monday, Canadian legislators will become the second highest paid federal politicians in the world according to a report from National Post.

Backbench MPs will receive a raise of $8,500, pushing their salaries to $203,100 per year. Cabinet ministers will see their salaries increase by $12,500 to $299,000, plus perks like a car and driver.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will see his salary increase by $17,000 to $406,200 annually.

By comparison, Ontario Premier Doug Ford has made $208,974 each year that he has been in office.

Article content

While the size of the cabinet and the number of parliamentary secretaries in Ontario is out of control, there is an argument to be made to increase the base salaries of elected officials in the province. Many of them make less than the civil servants and political staffers that they work alongside.

There surely could be a happy medium between what MPPs are paid in Ontario, $116,000, and what their federal counterparts in Ottawa are paid, $203,000.

To attract good people there needs to be good compensation, without having to resort to tricks like giving all but one member of the PC caucus a role that comes with extra cash. That idea would never fly with a large slice of the electorate who believe we have too many politicians and they are all overpaid.

If MPPs were given raises, not as crazy as we are seeing in Ottawa, we could stop the charade of everyone getting these extra jobs to ensure a pay raise.

We need smaller government, we need more transparency, but let’s be honest, MPPs also need a raise after 16 years.

blilley@postmedia.com

Article content