oz, David
‘itehell

tt

a second
opinion

OU pet what you pay
‘ox. But in politics you
jometimes get more
han you bargain for.
“Just prior to the recent -
djournment of the legisla- :
re, our MLAs squeaked
‘ough a modest increase in
ary, perks and constituency
Howances. |.
fd For the record, I don’t
bembject to any of these increas-
-except perhaps for the
imited use of cellular tele-
notes; which'doesn’t seem
ted and is opcn to
‘ve long argued, how-
ver, that while we should get
id of. the under-the-table
erks and tax-free allowances,
e should pay our politicians

A decent salary, paid up”
nt, with no back-room -
éals, should be the order of
i¢-day. ‘Unfortunately, that’s
ot exactly. what we've got.
f:-The technique for..
inouncing the recent,
typical of the
cy and ‘manipulation that
ormially shrouds issues of ”
‘muricration for politicians.
ie:clandestine Legislative:
sembly.Management °°.
mittee. — made.up of ”
New Democrats and Liberais

"AUGUST 26 - 29, 1996

of course, the
* politicians will

and chaired by Speaker Dale
Lovick — met on the last day
of the session to quietly
approve the increases.
However, no announce-
ment was forthcoming until
the following day, after the
press gallery had already filed
their end-of-session stories. Is
it possible that they were
hoping no one would notice?
Apparently, in order to
avoid future conflicts, a com-
mittee of MLAs will now be
choosing a panel of “ordinary
citizens” to decide on issues
of compensation. So shy and
bashful are our representa-
tives, that they
wish to give
the job of rais-
ing their pay
and rations to
someone else
— in the hope
that this will
legitimize
more gener-
ous salary -
increases. But,

select the.
panel, which
still raises the
spectre of a
possible con-
flict.

In al! of this; our hyper-
sensitive MLAs are seeking to’
reinvent the wheel. A few.
years ago, the respected inde-
pendent mediator and North

-Shore resident, Chuck

Connaghan, completed an
extensive study on the subject
of MLA compensation. The
NDP government of Mike
Harcourt cowardly refused to

accept the recommendations, -

“A decent salary,
paid up front,
with no back-

room deals,
should be the
order of the day.

Unfortunately,

that’s not exactly

what we’ve got.”

lah Wwe

fearing a backlash as a result
of Connaghan’s proposed
salary increases, which would
have put British Columbia's
MLAs roughly in line with
other jurisdictions, (And it
should be noted that our
provincial representatives are
paid modestly in comparison
with other Canadian legista-
tors.)

Rather than going
through the fancy rigamarole
ofa new make-work project
for a group of MLAs, the
current NDP government
would have been well-advised
to simply dust off
Connaghan’s
excellent 1992
Review of
MLA
Remuneration.
Most curious
in this whole
affair is the
inconsistent
behavior of
the opposition
Liberals.
During the:
recent election
campaign
Gordon
Carnpbell said
that if he was
elected he'd
reduce the number of MLAs
from 75 to 60. Wien the
government passed a law pro-
viding for the possible. .
increase in the number of
seats in the legislature from
75 to 81, the Liberals cried
shame; they said we couldn’t
afford it and renewed their
call for fewer politicians.

Now, as it turns out, they,
were simultaneously meeding
behind the scenes with the

NDP to approve increases in
salaries and perks and ta
devise an independent review
for further increases in
MLAs’ salaries. These are the
same Liberals, at least they're
led by the very same leader,
who last year during debate
on the NDP legislation abel-
ishing the MLAs* pension
plan, beat their breasts saying
they would yo much further.
The macho Grits said they
would make the scrapping of
the pension plan retroactive
— implying that they would
somehow force retired politi-
cians to pay back their pen-
sionable earnings!

And when it came to
compensation for MLAs, the
Liberals said they were pre-
pared to be paid less, not
more.

That was then; this is now.
I didn’t notice any Liberal
news releases complaining
about the increases in salaries,
perks or constituency
allowances — even though
they allegedly believe we have
too many MLAs. Likewise, I
haven’t heard any Liberal
protests about the efforts to
invent a new process to pro-
vide further salary increases
for our excessive number of
MLAs.

As I said, in politics you
sometimes get more than you
bargain for.

The North Shore News
believes strongly in freedom of

speech and the right of all sides -
in a debate to be beard. The

columnists published in, the
News present differing points
of view, but those views are not
necessarily those of the newspa-
per itself: f

The Ministry of Transportation and Highways advises there will be traffic delays
for paving on Highway #99 at Cheakamus Canyon, 30 kilometres north of
Squamish. These delays will be in effect as follows:

» traffic volume.

Single Lane Alternating Traffic

7:00 AM - 7:00 Pi

The traveling public can expect minor delays of up to 20 minutes, dependent on

| should conditions warrant.

The Ministry thanks you for your cooperation and encourages you to drive safely

through the construction zone.

BriTls
COLUMBIA

Ministry of Transportation
and Highways

Friday, August 23, 1996 ~ North Shore News - 7

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