Politician Salaries in Canada - Too Much or Too Little？ ｜ A Critical Compass Clip
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
175.4898
Summary
In this episode, we discuss the current pay disparity between politicians in Canada and the rest of the world, and what we would like to see in the future. We also discuss the benefits of a scaled-up pay scale.
Transcript
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i remember having shane getson on a town hall uh at one point and we talked about you know what
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what mlas get paid and you know when you talk to canadians they say well they get paid too much
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money obviously i mean there's a the big conversation in calgary right now is how much
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raise uh city council is going to get to be you know as bad as bad as they are you know with gondek
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coming up to like two and a quarter 225 000 or something it's over 200 000 um but in actuality
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that's that's not a lot of money uh you know for a mayor 200 000 for city councillors 120 000
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dollars uh for mlas i'm not sure what they get paid mps are like two and a quarter to 250
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and and and getson said you know the reason that we have the politicians that we have
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is because we're not attracting people by the with an actual reasonable amount of money for
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skilled people to be in what it is is for literally like what we see these people chasing a higher
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paycheck than they would achieve in their in their otherwise business lives through like so
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yeah the mayor of edmonton and calgary they make more money than mlas in alberta
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well yeah yeah and maybe like yeah i i can't remember exactly how much with uh the premier but
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it's not that different so i don't think that mayors are in a position really are doing that
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kind of responsibility that they need that kind of money well i can see two different arguments
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uh sorry sheldon i can see like maybe maybe you pay them maybe you pay them so much more
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that they don't then go seeking you know what whatever their next ride is going to be as soon
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as they're out of politics by you know allowing uh you know lobbyists to buy them with favors and
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stuff right or you pay uh an mp the the average salary of the worker of their
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right of their riding yeah yeah so so there's there's your incentive to you know enrich the
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people you represent because you're getting paid whatever the median salary is that that you of
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the people you represent so you're looking to elevate them well i mean that's that's essentially
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what what we would like to see i mean you know they say a rising tide lifts all boats yeah you're
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in the leadership and you're the person that helps uh the tide rise then it gives you a stake it gives you put
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you got skin in the game at that point right you're not just you're not just working on behalf of
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whatever committee you're representing on behalf of whatever global interest they're representing
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i what what i i mean it's a it's a probably a completely unpractical model but to me
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you know the comparison is not the same as say the the free market because in the free market you
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are paid to perform and so mps as far as i'm concerned are not paid don't perform if they want to
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so what i would suggest is a scaled pay you get you you you get elected you get 120 000 a year
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there is a scale right now but it's you know you you become a minister get paid and if you perform
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well turn to your constituents and then the constituents can say yeah he deserves a raise and
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so and and make make the raises big so you get paid in your first year you get a hundred thousand
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dollars a year you do really well and you get a high approval rating from your constituents next
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year you're going to get 150 do extremely well next year you're going to get 200 keep sucking
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at what you do you're stuck at your base pay of a hundred so that's what i'd like to see something
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like that because i i i mean uh beyond that i i don't think politics will ever attract like that's
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another myth right that paying well attracts good people even in industry like it doesn't work
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work that way like then you attract people who are just interested in making more bucks so
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motivated individuals don't work for pure money they they they work for something else but
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yeah it's yeah it's a challenging that's a good point that's a good point because there's there's the
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whole other uh um uh incentive jennifer o'connell makes 200 000 a year as an mp like holy shit like
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mark garretson makes 200 000 a year as an mp yeah yeah because there are there are the people there
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that are just in it for the for the for the rush of having power over somebody yeah yeah i just i just
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wasn't sure if that's how much they make because i i do think oh um there are some that make a lot more
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than others like that's that's the thing i there's massive discrepancies which also don't make sense
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to me but the the pay is the same for every mp so an mp right now it's approximately 220 000
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and then there's uh there's a premium for being on committees there's a premium for being in the chair
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of the committee there's a premium for being the speaker of the house those are good paying jobs
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obviously because mlas do not make that much money oh no and mla in alberta is 120 000 a year
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yeah massive yeah yeah no it's it's not even and an mla in alberta doesn't get a pension they
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yeah uh mlas in alberta voted away the pension years ago and all they get is a defined contribution
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to uh to a savings plan it's still generous but they don't get a pension yeah so it's like like jam
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of the month club yeah so then you can see yeah federally it certainly is a nice like uh compensation
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for mostly anyone but like for some skilled people um like shane getson was saying it it is a pay cut