Members' pensions and salaries: a round table.

• Author: Greg O'Donnell, and others

Greg O'Donnell (MLA, New Brunswick): The first question to ask is whether being a member of a legislative body is a full-time or part-time position. For me it is full-time. Let me give an example. My family used to alternate hosting Christmas dinner with my sister-in-law's family. It was our tune in 1989 when a constituent stopped in on Christmas day because his ditch had been frozen up and he wanted me to get the Department of Transport and have his ditch cleaned.

In 1991 it was our turn again. This time a constituent showed up looking to qualify for UIC. In 1993, my brother-in-law decided we could no longer host the family Christmas meal and henceforth we should go to his place each and every year.

An MLA's job is full-time. No one who seeks election stops and really looks at the package and says "I am going to run federally or I am going to run provincially because at the end of six years I can get a pension.

One problem that we have is that we are not entirely truthful with the public. We have frozen our salaries for the last several years in the New Brunswick Legislature at $35,807.00. But we have a tax-free allowance and an additional 9% going into to a pension plan. After ten sessions we are eligible for the pension regardless of age. We have travel allowances which permits an MLA to make a maximum of 30 trips per year to Fredericton. These are all little things but I believe they are an irritation to the public because they are not sure of what we are receiving.

Recently in New Brunswick we introduced a $5,000 allowance which lets us rent an office, a couple of telephones and a fax machine. This allows me a place outside the home to do my business. But being a rural MLA the people say "its Greg, let's drop over." Therefore the family ends up sharing the family room with a variety of people. It is pretty near impossible to say to these people: "Look I now have an office, please do not come to my home."

As far as pensions are concerned I have to agree with some people who say it is pretty ridiculous when you could have a 29-year old getting a pension. But how many 19-year olds do you know who have been elected to a Legislative Assembly. We changed our rules so that you must sit at least 8 years, and be sixty years old to qualify for a pension. I supported this, but what we are really doing is discouraging young people from running for office.

When you are elected, regardless of your political stripe, you are marked in the business community and when I decide to leave politics and return to private life I am going to be known as a Grit. It can have an effect on business.

Doug Martindale (MLA, Manitoba): In 1990 there were 14 new members in my caucus. Some, like me experienced a large increase in salary, about 25%. Others experienced big decreases particularly people who went from being university professors to MLAs. Since I have been in the Legislature, the first year we received a pay increase, the second year a freeze and for the last two years a roll-back of 4 percent which is the same as the civil servant's roll-back.

The media have played a significant role in causing us to review our indemnities and allowances. The Manitoba's Taxpayer's Association which is part of a national organization published all our names, indemnities and allowances which they took from Public Accounts.

But both the Association and the Winnipeg Free Press did an untruthful thing. They added everything and came up with some startling totals saying some of us made as high as $154,000, and "nobody draws less than $73,000." The way they arrived at these fraudulent figures was by adding our constituency allowance with our salary. In fact, it is illegal to spend your constituency allowance on yourself and impossible because your claim would be rejected.

Did they issue a retraction? Well, they certainly tried to correct the record and there was a view that the figures were so ridiculously high that nobody believed it.

The Legislative Assembly appointed an Indemnities and Allowances Commission to handle this. It was an independent commission and the names of the commissioners were agreed upon by all three parties. The results were to be binding on the Legislative Assembly. The report and the recommendations will take effect on the first day after the next provincial general election. The Commission began with some important principles and they followed their principles quite well in their recommendations.

They said any system of remuneration for MLAs should be simple, straightforward, easily understandable, fair and accountable. They said...