The all-party Members' Services Committee met again on Tuesday, December 11 - the first such meeting since August. MLAs approved a budget to give themselves another raise - up to 4% - in April 2002. The actual raise will be based on the Statistics Canada "average weekly earnings index" for Alberta. In April of 2001, MLA pay increased 3.3%. In theory MLA pay could also go down, if Albertans' average weekly wages declined.

You may have been away on holidays on August 7, when MLAs voted themselves a 10% after-inflation pay raise. At the taxable equivalent of $76,250 per year, Alberta MLAs are now the third-highest paid provincial politicians in Canada.

Technically these meetings are open to the public. But notice of the meeting is limited to posting a sheet of paper on a bulletin board somewhere on the inside of the Legislature. If you are lucky enough to get a phone call from someone who works inside the Legislature, you as a taxpayer might find out when the meeting takes place. You could then observe and take notes about the various numbers being spoken of, but would not be given a copy of the proposed budget.
The secrecy of these meetings is the main cause for lack of media attention. In August there were no media present at all - and not for lack of interest.

In August the MLAs also increased their severance pay to three months' salary for every year in office, calculated as per the MLA's three highest-paid years as Premier, Opposition Leader, Speaker, cabinet minister, or backbencher. Without having consulted Alberta taxpayers in the provincial election held only five months earlier, the $6,750 raise and increased severance packages went into effect immediately.

Finance Minister Pat Nelson announced a 1% across-the-board spending cut in October. On December 11, Committee Chair Ken Kowalski proudly announced that he had found not just 1%, but 3% worth of savings, through delaying the purchase of new office equipment, and other measures.

Exactly how this 3% saving is reconciled with an extra $560,250 per year for all 83 MLAs was not explained. Nor did Chairman Kowalski explain how the 3% saving is reconciled with the $17.7 million in severance pay that taxpayers
would have to pay if all 83 MLAs retired or were defeated in 2005.

The tragedy here goes beyond the contempt which our MLAs express towards the taxpayers who pay their salaries. MLAs have lost their moral authority - or at least some of it - to negotiate effectively with teachers and other groups who want the government to spend more.

Albertans are likely to see more spending cuts announced in the months ahead, as the government tries to scale back a budget that was far too big to begin with. If MLAs don't do the right thing and reverse the mistake they made in August, every spending cut will be tainted with hypocrisy.

Mistakes do not magically go away with the passage of time. Mistakes go away when they are corrected.

It's up to MLAs to correct the mistake they made in August. The sooner, the better.