The provincial government has shut down a possible pay raise for members of the legislative assembly.
Premier Tim Houston’s government introduced amendments to the House of Assembly Act Tuesday, at an emergency sitting of the legislature.
Those amendments mean the government can refuse a 12.6 per cent salary increase for MLAs, recommended by an independent review panel, made up of lawyers and university professors, on July 19.
The premier even went as far as reducing his own pay by over $11,246 dollars, even though the review panel found his salary to be appropriate.
Newly-elected Liberal Leader, Zach Churchill, was critical of the sitting government’s decision to call an emergency session of the legislature over wages.
“We are seeing a severe lack of inaction on the cost of living crisis that we have here in Nova Scotia,” Churchill said during a media scrum. “The fact that we had this emergency session called to deal with MLA salaries, when we all know that’s not an emergency. A simple consensus amongst caucuses that we wouldn’t accept it would have prevented payroll from giving us the pay raise to begin with.”
Houston has said his government won’t support increasing salaries while regular Nova Scotians are struggling — a sentiment that was echoed by members of the PC Party.
“We won’t be distracted from the important work we are doing on behalf of Nova Scotians – improving access to healthcare, making child care more affordable, creating more affordable housing and making sure Nova Scotians have the services and supports they need,” said Education Minister Becky Druhan in a news release. “These are the issues our Premier cares about. He continues to show incredible leadership and focus on the issues important to Nova Scotians.”
Since 2014, MLAs make an annual base salary of about $89,234.
If the pay bump had been accepted, salaries for MLAs would have gone up to $100,480.91.
