Kelowna-Lake Country MLA Al Horning figures he averages 14 hours a day on the job, especially when the legislature is sitting.That’s why Horning thinks a long-awaited raise is in order.Premier Gordon Campbell has appointed an independent commission to recommend pay raises for MLAs. The panel has 90 days to report.That move is an attempt by government to finesse its way out of the pay-raise debacle of 2005, when the Liberals and NDP tried to rubber stamp a 14.8 per cent increase after only an hour of debate.The public outcry was such that NDP Leader Carole James had to withdraw her party’s support, scuttling the deal.Horning notes that MLAs in B.C. haven’t had a substantial raise since 1997 and are now well behind their counterparts in Ontario.
Ontario’s elected representatives gave themselves a 25 per cent pay raise just four days before Christmas. The pay for an Ontario MPP has gone up by $22,000. It is now $110,000 a year compared with $76,000 in B.C. “We should be comparable with the other provinces,” said Horning. “The federal MPs get twice as much as we do.“When you look at it hourly, it’s not much per hour. I’m on the go all the time.”He said an average day in Victoria begins at 7 a.m. and goes until 10 p.m. His Saturdays are spent doing constituency business in the Okanagan. He said he only has Sunday morning to spend with his family.“By noon, I’m at the airport going back to Victoria,” he said. “If the house isn’t sitting, I’m either in my office or out in the riding. “There are always functions to go to, and we probably get a hundred e-mails a day.”
The panel includes lawyer Sue Parish, former B.C. Supreme Court Justice Josiah Wood and Sandra Robinson, a UBC business professor.“It will be at the sole discretion of the commission to determine how they collect information and receive public input for their report,” said Campbell. “Fairness to the taxpayer and members should be guiding principles for the commission and, in my view, it is appropriate that these issues be dealt with in an open and transparent manner.”The NDP has stated its support for the process.
Kelowna-Mission MLA Sindi Hawkins, who has been both a nurse and lawyer, said she makes less as an MLA than she would in her previous professions.“I had lunch with a girlfriend who is a nurse and found out she makes $15,000 more a year than I do,” said Hawkins.She said she has slowed down a bit after her fight with cancer, but still puts in 80 hours a week.“You’re never really off the job,” she said. “Even if you go shopping, you find you’re on the job. But I don’t do seven days a week anymore. I try to take a Saturday or a Sunday off.”She said Campbell is badly underpaid.“The premier works incredibly hard and makes less than a backbench MP,” said Hawkins.
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