Jacques Boissinot The Canadian Press The interim leader of the Liberal Party from Quebec, Marc Tanguay (left), alongside Liberal MP Monsef Derraji (right), commented on the Quebec government's economic update on November 7, in Quebec.
The Liberal Party of Quebec affirms that the eagerness of elected representatives of the National Assembly to grant themselves a 30% increase in their remuneration does not create any appearance of conflict of interest, thus contradicting the opinion of the Commissioner. ethics of the National Assembly.
Deputy Monsef Derraji thus rejected the analysis of Ariane Mignolet, according to whom the elected officials placed themselves in this delicate position by increasing their basic compensation from 101,561 $ to $131,766. “Ms. Mignolet has her point of view. I don’t share it,” he said.
Mr. Derraji defended the process that led the Liberal Party to support the bill proposed by the Coalition Avenir Québec in June which included the recommendations of a committee made up of two former elected officials and a human resources expert. “Without agreeing with her in a partisan way, she is entitled to her opinion. Was there a conflict of interest? Look, we precisely wanted to avoid future conflicts of interest. »
To (re)read
- The mystery hangs over the remuneration of CAQ deputies
- The National Assembly increases its budget by $4.4 million to pay the deputies
- The elected representatives of the National Assembly vote for a 30% salary increase
- The deputies Are they in a conflict of interest when they discuss their salary?
On Tuesday, Ms. Mignolet once again recommended that elected officials put in place an independent mechanism for determining their remuneration in order to avoid any appearance of conflict of interest. The commissioner ruled that their decision to grant themselves a raise in June created the appearance of a conflict of interest. According to her, it would have been better if it came into force after the next elections.
In June, Québec solidaire (QS) and the Parti Québécois voted against the bill increasing remuneration. The elected officials of the Parti Québécois refused the controversial increase, as did the majority of those of QS.
Contradictory position
On Wednesday, Mr. Derraji accused QS of being in a contradictory position since some of his elected officials accept part of the 30% increase. “There are people who voted against it and they used that increase to pay their mortgage,” he said.
Since the adoption of the bill in June, elected officials have given the impression of not having made a definitive decision on their remuneration. They waived a $125 attendance bonus this fall that they deemed unjustified. The CAQ deputies want to suspend this year the automatic indexation of their compensation which follows the increases planned in the public sector.
Mr. Derraji did not give any indication of the position of his caucus regarding this last subject. “I can't begin to comment on hypotheses in the public square,” he said.
The parliamentary leader of Québec solidaire, Alexandre Leduc, affirmed that his political party would advocate for remuneration to be addressed more broadly if the government ever came back to suspend indexation for this year. “We will not enter into fictitious scenarios, we will see what he will throw at us, but what is certain and certain is that, in any scenario, there must be the get it out of our hands and then have it submitted to an independent binding committee. »
Last spring, QS proposed the suspension of indexation for the four years of the current mandate.
Parti Québécois MP Joël Arseneau recalled that his party had refused the 30% increase and that it would be content with the indexations that will be granted to public sector employees. “We will take the equivalent of the average indexation obtained by Quebec public service workers. This is always our positioning. There, what we learn is that, in the law, there is an indexation clause which would apply this year, but we do not want it either. »