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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