Alberta pay makes political hay

This is from the Edmonton Sun.
It is strange that the politicians get to decide their own pay. Surely it could be done by an independent body insofar as that is possible. The Grits do not seem so unhappy about getting big boosts in pay for serving on committees.


June 1, 2008
Pay makes political hay
Grit MLA blasts premier's salary hike while seeking $300,000 for Opposition caucus
By NEIL WAUGH, EDMONTON SUN
PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. -- Premier Ed Stelmach was adding up his score card at the western premiers' meeting here last week.
And assessing his wins, losses and ties.
"Progress," the premier winked, "is made by starting with picking the lower hanging fruit."
So no deal was struck with Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall over a full bore labour, trade and investment deal like he has with B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell.
But things are moving ahead on carbon capture, storage research and nuclear power assessment with the province, something Premier Brad describes as "easy to draw, harder to say."
And there's going to be a western water stewardship council after the unfounded allegations of cancer deaths at Fort Chip came back to haunt him again at a First Nations demo.
The premier even got to put the boots to a national carbon tax again. Especially the one that Ottawa is floating that stings industry $65 a tonne.
"That's a massive cost to consumers,'' Stelmach warned. "Without any investment going into research and innovation," he spat.
Not unlike the cynical 2.4 cents a litre green charge that Campbell starts slapping on the price of B.C. motor fuel in July. It will be returned to "every man, woman and child" in the form of $100 Gordie Bucks cheques.
Yet Stelmach didn't appear a happy man as a limo whisked him away to the airport.
LIBERALS ATTACK ED
The Liberals were on his case again, this time over last week's cabinet order that saw his salary jump from $159,000 to $213,000. Cabinet ministers also get serious boosts.
Politicians voting themselves big raises is always a lose-lose situation.
Ed's top gun spin doctor Paul Stanway put it in context.
"It's like putting lipstick on a pig," Stanway winced.
Then Stelmach tried to explain the inexplicable.
"If we are going to attract younger people for government we've got to pay them appropriately," the premier said. "I remain committed," he said without much conviction.
Alberta Liberal house leader Laurie Blakeman's outrageous indignation metre was in the red zone.
"I was waiting for the other shoe to drop," she blasted. "I saw it coming."
And she talked mysteriously about a vote, but not last week in the cabinet room.
The vote came on May 21 at a meeting of House Speaker Ken Kowalski's Member Services Committee, the legislature's traditional perks, pay and privileges playground.
A transcript of that meeting tells a strangely different tale when committee members debated increasing the pay MLAs get for sitting on the growing number of legislature committees, including Liberal MLAs.
"We do work hard," agreed Calgary Grit Dave Taylor. "There's a significant increase in workload. I'm certainly not going to disagree."
About the only hang up that Taylor had about the boost - which could see MLAs get up to $3,500 more a month for committee work - was not the why but the how.
'IT'S OUR RESPONSIBILITY'
"We should not be sitting in judgment of our own compensation," Taylor snorted. "It's simply a feeling of mine."
But he also acknowledged third party compensation is "hard to put into practice."
NDP Leader Brian Mason - an Edmonton city council veteran - tried to bring some reality to the debate. Brian's been through the politicians' salary wars a few times.
"I wish there was some way we could get around it," he said. "But it's our responsibility."
Noting his tiny caucus' committee workload has "multiplied seven fold."
So it passed with the Grits voting against, even though it will boost the salary for Liberal Leader Kevin Taft (on holiday in Greece at the time) to as much as $184,000 a year. That's way more than Stelmach was making. Thus, the cabinet order to bring the pay levels back in line and the Liberal outrage.
But a curious thing happened moments later when Blakeman made a pitch to the same meeting, demanding "adequate resourcing of the Official Opposition caucus." That would be $300,000 to be precise.
"Can I justify this to Albertans and constituents," Blakeman blustered. "In a New York minute."
Spare me.