The House of Commons has stated that it was necessary to increase the salary of a Member of Parliament (MP) from New Brunswick, regardless of the MP’s preference. According to an affidavit submitted to the Federal Court by House clerk Eric Janse, all MPs must receive the salaries mandated by legislation, and it would be unlawful and impractical to deviate from this requirement.
Miramichi-Grand Lake Conservative MP Mike Dawson had filed a judicial review application in June in an attempt to prevent Parliament from granting him an $8,800 raise. In response, Janse filed an affidavit last month asserting that the sessional allowance for the applicant must be paid in accordance with the amounts specified in the Parliament of Canada Act, including any applicable annual adjustments.
Granting Dawson the option to decline the raise would necessitate House staff to carry out special administrative procedures solely for Dawson to maintain a separate calculation of his sessional allowance annually for the duration of his MP tenure. The base salary for MPs was $208,900 last year and increased to $217,700 on April 1, in line with federal legislation that links MP pay adjustments to a formula based on private-sector salary increases.
Dawson has expressed his belief that accepting an $8,800 raise while many Canadians are facing financial challenges is inappropriate. He compared the simplicity of deducting federal taxes from employees’ paychecks in his business to the ease of halting a pay raise electronically, emphasizing that he has been donating his raise to charity but desires the ability to refuse it entirely.
House of Commons Speaker Francis Scarpaleggia’s spokesperson, Olivier Duhaime, mentioned that neither Scarpaleggia nor Janse would comment on the case and that full legal arguments are anticipated to be presented in the coming months.