There appears to be only lukewarm interest at Queen’s Park in addressing political salaries, as Ontario Premier Doug Ford acknowledges that one of his reasons for promoting some MPPs is “unfair” base salaries and the province’s “tough” cost of living.
As part of an extended explanation of why he promoted a new raft of his caucus to positions as parliamentary assistants last week, Ford said it was “just not fair” that Ontario politicians have not received a raise since 2007.
Despite the premier suggesting the $116,000 MPPs receive annually is insufficient, his office told Global News they were not considering addressing the issue through a review or increase.
“We don’t have any plans to lift the freeze,” a spokesperson for Ford said on Friday.
Across the aisle, there also appears to be limited interest in tackling the salaries paid to parliamentarians.
Both the Ontario NDP and Liberals said they were open to a cross-party committee to weigh in on potential compensation changes but said there were bigger issues that needed to be handled first.
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Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles said it was a “fine conversation to have” but not an issue that preoccupied her party.
“I will say, and my party and my caucus, we feel very strongly that we live a pretty privileged life and there’s a lot of people really struggling right now in our communities,” she said.
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“That’s a conversation that an all-party committee can have to make some decisions about what reasonable increases are over the years.”
Similarly, Ontario Liberal MPP John Fraser said he doesn’t “worry about” pay but that a “thoughtful” approach to the issue could be welcome, through some kind of non-partisan or arms-length body.
“What the integrity commissioner has suggested on two or three occasions, something that’s not a partisan thing, have somebody else look at it,” he said.
“I worry about my colleagues but I also worry about who is going to come after us. Who with a young family is going to travel hundreds of, thousands of miles in some cases and do the work that’s really important?”
Stiles and Fraser accused Ford of using parliamentary assistant roles — which come with a 10-per cent pay bump generally equivalent to $16,000 — and cabinet positions to compensate his own caucus more generously.
“The premier could have a more thoughtful approach than saying, ‘Hey, it’s not fair, but I’ve got this backdoor,’” Fraser said.
Speaking on Friday, after Global News revealed Ford had promoted three MPPs including one who has not yet officially sat at Queen’s Park, Ford said MPPs are underpaid.
“Everyone go after politicians, I get it, I don’t need the raise and so on and so forth,” he said.
“But there’s people that get into this job and there’s no public or private sector that has not got raise — and I don’t plan on doing this — all political stripes, since 2007. That’s just not fair. I don’t care if you’re a politician or not — but 2007?”
The freeze has been in place since 2007 and renewed on several occasions. Most recently, in 2022, after unexpectedly balancing the budget, the Ford government brought in legislation to keep MPP pay capped.