The BC NDP caucus pay raise is only good for MLAs

There are no signs of the cost of living in British Columbia going down anytime soon, and the people are feeling it. 

According to Loyal Homes, a family of four pays about $1,300 per month for groceries, the median housing price hovers just below $1 million, and transport — public and private — is affected by the $1.56 per litre average for gasoline. 

Reactions to these increasingly untenable circumstances range from prolonged co-habitation with roommates and family to one-third of people considering leaving B.C. Naturally, in a seriously sensitive socio-political climate like this, the last thing anyone — let alone those with access to the levers of power — would want to do is publicly announce that they are raising their own pay.

Last month, it was publicly announced that all but one MLA in the governing BC NDP caucus would be raising their own pay. B.C. Premier David Eby has added on three additional cabinet ministers and one parliamentary secretary, which will cost taxpayers an additional $788,000 over four years, CTV News reported. 

Unsurprisingly, and not incorrectly, B.C. Tory and Official Opposition Leader John Rustad has jumped to deride Eby for “giving every one of his MLAs some sort of wage increase with a bloated government,” while British Columbians are struggling daily. However, this does not pardon the opposition from any accusations of living off the public teat.

As of April this year, base pay of an MLA is $119,532.72, established under the Members’ Remuneration and Pensions Act (MRPA). That’s without the bells and whistles that come with titles like premier, whip, chair, speaker, and so on. 

An MLA’s pension is based on a benefit accrual rate of 3.5 per cent of the highest three-year average annual pensionable earnings, according to the MRPA, and the maximum pension a member may receive is 70 per cent of these earnings. Compare that to the average annual British Columbian salary of $84,385 and you get an idea as to how cavernous the gap is.

Using these pre-November numbers, Eby’s pay is about $227,112.17 a year, while Rustad gets $179,299.09 a year, both of which dwarf the $84,385 per year provincial average further. Take pensions into account and both men would still be raking it in while working people struggle between bills and bread. 

Obviously, the pay raise is an insensitive and poorly planned decision in a time when so many are unlikely to ever see an MLA base pay in the sum-total of their lifetimes. For the NDP, which barely eked out a government last election, it is another notch against the party and its economic policy. 

It is also something that might be forgotten in four years only to spring up against the New Democrats in the next election by the Conservatives and their promises of “common sense” fiscal responsibility — AKA austerity. Also, do not count on them to willingly accept a pay cut. In all likelihood, a Conservative government in B.C. would either raise its caucus’s pay right away or delay it until the Tories decide it to be politically safe. Then, the NDP will cry shame as the Official Opposition.

The honourable thing to do would be for B.C. MLAs of all stripes and titles to slash their salaries, or, in a tad less idealistic measure, freeze their pay. But in a country where MPs make over $200,000 annually versus a national average of $65,912.08 per year for everybody else, there is nothing holding back the political class when it comes to raising its salaries.