Mandryk: Saskatchewan MLAs provide close to the worst value-for-money

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Saskatchewan MLAs claiming it’s ridiculous teachers would demand cost-of-living wage increases or dictate their own work complement need to take a long look in the mirror.

The annual April Fool’s joke was again played on Saskatchewan taxpayers Monday when our MLAs received their automatic cost-of-living increase — a three per cent or $3,191.52 pay increase this year to $109,576 from $106,384 in 2023.

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Of course, this is just the minimum MLA wage, not including extra duty pay for cabinet, committee duties, assembly titles, etc. that virtually all of them receive.

Unlike teachers (or most of the rest of us, for that matter) who don’t get extra pay for extra work like noon-hour supervision or coaching, MLAs get extra pay for what is, essentially, still a part-time job. (Or at least, those not in cabinet still farm or carry on side hustles like running motels.)

Moreover, the automatic cost-of-living increase applies to that extra pay as well. As Education Minister Jeremy Cockrill put it, you just can’t compare politicians to teachers or other lines of work.

However, you can compare them with other politicians. And by reasonable measures, except for a handful of politicians on the east coast, Saskatchewan politicians are the most overpaid in the country.

Of course, we need to be fair and provide a little context here:

For starters, overpaid politicians aren’t exactly unique.

Federal members on April 1 also saw their salaries automatically increase by $8,500 to $203,100 a year.

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According to the National Post, this means we have the second-highest paid federal politicians in the world, after the Americans.

Here in Saskatchewan, it should be noted we don’t quite have the highest paid MLAs in the country … but our MLAs have been trying their best for the past couple of decades to get there.

MLAs from Alberta ($120,936 a year), Ontario ($116,550 a year) and B.C. ($111,024 a year) make more than MLAs in Saskatchewan. (Or at least, that was the case in 2021, the most recently available numbers.)

However, it should be noted that we have gone from having the eighth-highest paid MLAs to fourth-highest — largely because our MLAs have annual wage increases tied to the consumer price index (CPI).

We can’t necessarily blame this cost-of-living windfall on Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party government, brought in two decades ago when previous NDP government MLAs on the Board of Internal Economy conspired with the Sask. Party to sneak in a big wage increase.

It’s been a windfall since and Saskatchewan would have the second- or third-highest pay right now had they claimed the full 6.8-per-cent CPI scheduled annual increase last year. Embarrassed by that proposed wage increase that they were unwilling to give anyone else, MLAs cut their wage increase at three per cent and have now capped that as the maximum increase to suggest.

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However, it’s still fair and reasonable to suggest that west of Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador, no Canadians get less value for their MLAs when you consider their numbers, their pay and the number of people they represent. Consider the numbers, based on 2021 statistics:

Alberta’s 87 MLAs made $120,936 that year to represent an average 48,996 constituents. That’s $2.47 per constituent, annually. The rest of the provinces in 2021:

Ontario, 124 MPPs, $116,550 a year, 114,709 constituents, $1.02 per constituent; B.C., 87 MLAs, $111,024, 57,455 constituents, $1.93 per constituent; Manitoba, 57 MLAs, $96,216, 18,566 constituents, $4.09 per constituent; Quebec, 125 MNAs, $95,704, 23,547 constituents, $1.41 per constituent; Newfoundland, 40 MLAs, $95,357, 12,764 constituents, $7.47 per constituent; Nova Scotia, 55 MLAs, $89,234, 17,625 constituents, $5.06 per constituent; New Brunswick, 49 MLAs, $85,000 a year, 15,829 constituents, $5.37 per constituent; Prince Edward Island, 27 MLAs, $74,394, 5,716 constituents, $13.02 per constituent.

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And what about Saskatchewan’s 61 MLAs? Well, in 2021, they were paid $100,068 to represent 18,566 constituents each — roughly $5.39 per constituent. That’s third-worst in the nation and getting worse.

Updating to the current 2024 Saskatchewan MLA salary of $109,576 in a province with 1,225,493 people, that’s an average of 20,090 constituents or $5.45 per constituent. This is nearly double the $2.32 per constituent costs of Saskatchewan’s 14 MPs, now being paid $203,100 annually to represent an average 87,535 constituents.

Among the worst value-for-money of elected politicians anywhere? It sure seems so.

Murray Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-Post and the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.

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