Well, you could see it coming. After MPs in Ottawa hiked their salaries retroactively by a greedy 20%, and bumped up their gold-plated pensions by a whopping 42% in the process, most observers expected that it would be just a matter of weeks before Ontario MPPs tried to hike their pay packages.

But the estimate of weeks was, shall we say, conservative. In fact, it took just six days for Ontario politicians to swing into action. Yesterday in Toronto, the MPP Compensation Reform Act (Arm's Length Process), 2001 was introduced and sailed through first reading by a vote of 62 for and 7 against.

This Bill places the power to set MPP salaries in the hands of the province's Integrity Commissioner and whatever the Commissioner recommends is binding and in turn takes "effect on the day that the report is delivered to the Speaker."

The CTF is Canada's leading voice on the issue of compensation for politicians. Our recommendations have been implemented in five provinces and some were even incorporated into the Lumley Report federally a few weeks ago.

Four principles must be adhered to when designing a compensation regime for elected officials: simplicity, transparency, accountability and fairness. To be fair, the Harris Tories abolished tax-free expense allowances in their first term of office (adhering to the principles of simplicity and transparency) and wound up the gold-plated, defined benefit MPP pension plan as well. In its place, they instituted as private-sector style, defined contribution, group RRSP regime; this is fairer to taxpayers and MPPs alike.

So on three of four benchmark principles, Ontario has fared well. However, the Act currently in question falls well short of being accountable.

In an understandable desire to avoid the odious spectacle of politicians in a blatant conflict of interest voting on their own pay hikes (as was evident in Ottawa last week), the majority of MPPs opted for an equally offensive proposition on the other side of the spectrum. They have abdicated their governance and accountability role by ceding all authority in this matter by making the report from the Integrity Commissioner binding instead of making it advisory.

The easy solution is to amend this bill at second reading or report stage and change the word binding to advisory. As well, a clause should be inserted into the Bill that stipulates that whatever pay increment (don't kid yourselves, there will be a pay hike) is approved, it should only take effect after the next election. And if an annual wage indexing provision is included in the legislation - based on an average of public- and private-sector wage settlements - that would be fine as well.

Ontario's 103 MPPs entered into an implicit contract with voters in 1999 to work for their current salary of $78,007 for their duration of the current government's mandate. Common law, not to mention concepts of honour and morality, dictate that they abided by this covenant with voters and not arrogantly breech it as their federal counterparts in Ottawa did.

Finally do MPPs deserve a raise The short answer is a qualified yes. Based on their workload, riding size (equivalent to federal MPs), and ratio of politicians-to-constituents, they are underpaid relative to their counterparts in other provinces. Yet, any raises must also compare with what Ontario's public servants are being offered.

In the end, this issue is about process and timing: by these standards, the governing Tories have - so far -failed miserably when it comes to the principle of accountability.