The CAQ is campaigning for increase of the salary of deputies, believes Jean-Marc Fournier

File Photo, Simon Clark
The liberal party leader, Jean-Marc Fournier

Charles Lecavalier

Thursday, 7 December 2017 14:47

UPDATE
Thursday, 7 December 2017 14:47

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Jean-Marc Fournier believes that mps should not arrogate themselves salary increases and believes that it is the CAQ, which argues for a compensation to the result of the imposition by the federal government of their expense allowances.

• READ ALSO: Discussions behind the scenes to raise the salary of mps
• READ ALSO: Taxation allowances: Eric Cairo claims to have suffered a “haircut” of salary

“We will not be the instigators of this approach, we will leave that up to the CAQ. I understood that the people of the CAQ to the office of the national Assembly agreed to increase the salaries […]I think they have like a double language,” lamented the liberal party leader, during a media scrum Thursday.

The parliamentary Bureau reported this morning that Québec solidaire denounced the maneuvers “on the sly” to the national Assembly to increase the salary of elected representatives to compensate them for the future taxation by the federal government of their expense allowances.

QS said to have been contacted by the vice-president of the national Assembly, François Ouimet, who submitted a proposal on behalf of the committee on the allowances of the Office of the national Assembly (NSS). “He wanted an early adoption of a draft law,” explained mna Manon Massé.

Jean-Marc Fournier stated that there was also the proposal inadmissible. “Rather than asking mps to go and do it behind closed doors in a hurry, by themselves, why is it that one does not use the rule of an independent committee”, he launched. “I do not see absolutely not on my radar screen a law in the spring about it,” he added.

The CAQ for a pay rise

The elected members of the CAQ, have defended the principle of a salary increase to offset the taxation of their expense allowances by the federal government, a measure announced in the last budget, Morneau.

“When it comes to politics, we made sacrifices, it is not willing to have cuts in salary,” said deputy Donald Martel, who sits on the committee of the BAN that is working on this issue. Is it that mps are privileged to be able to vote on a compensation following a tax increase? “Everyone negotiates his terms and conditions in the environment that it has”, he dropped.

He also criticized the release of Québec solidaire, who is “gone away”. “We do not want to spend anything in the teeth of a person. I never said that we have to pass it before the session,” said Mr. Martel.

Same goes for Eric Cairo : “Is what I agree to cut my pay in full exercise of my mandate : no I am not agree,” he said.

For its part, the pq’s Carole Poirier said that the PQ was deemed that the filing of a bill Friday “it was going too fast”. “This is not an increase of salary, it is compensation. It investigates scenarios, there is no decision-making”, she started.