Jacques Boissinot The Canadian Press If the project Bill 24 of the Legault government is adopted, the base salary of Quebec MPs will increase from $101,561 to $131,766. Their generous pension plan, however, will remain as it is.
Three out of four Quebecers would be against a 30% increase in MP salaries, suggests a new Léger poll conducted at the request of Québec solidaire (QS).
The sounding was conducted in online with 1006 Quebecers, from May 26 to 29.
He suggests that only 20% of respondents totally agree (6%) or somewhat agree (14%) with the increase in the salaries of MPs defended by the Legault government.
In contrast, 74 % of them said they totally disagreed (49%) or somewhat disagreed (25%) with this proposal.
The Léger poll comes at a time when the issue is catching fire in the National Assembly, the deputies in solidarity deeming it odious to raise their salaries faster than that of state employees.
The study of Bill 24, which gives concrete expression to the salary increase for deputies, is nevertheless continuing this week, in the absence of public consultations. The bill has reached the detailed study stage.
Recall that this is a committee made up of, among others, former Liberal minister Lise Thériault and former PQ MP Martin Ouellet who recommended an immediate increase of 30%.
Yet Quebec MPs are already the best paid provincial MPs in Canada.
In its report, the committee argued that the precariousness of the function, the magnitude of the workload and the challenge of balancing work-family-personal life were particularly difficult.
If the project Bill 24 is passed, the base salary of MNAs will increase from $101,561 to $131,766. Their pension plan will remain as is, the committee having not commented on this aspect.
Last week, wanting to justify the salary increase, the government whip, Éric Lefebvre, pleaded that his workload was so heavy that he could only see his mother once a year.
Premier François Legault argued that politicians have “the right to go and make as much money as possible to give as much as possible to (their) children”.
QS said find it absurd that elected officials pay themselves such a salary increase and, with the Parti Québécois (PQ), asked that it be postponed until 2026, after the next general elections.
The PQ has said he would support the bill on the condition that the government accept QS's amendment forcing a postponement. This amendment should be debated in the coming days.
While in Bécancour on Monday, Mr. Legault again refused to postpone the increase to 2026.
“We had a report which was done by an independent committee, requested by the Office of the National Assembly […] then we accept the report as it is, including the date of entry into force,” he declared.
