Ever since Premier Stelmach announced he would be taking a 5.4% pay cut on October 15th, I've been wondering if they needed to pass an Order-in-Council to make it official.  Not seeing any changes in the Orders-in-Council, I began to figure that it was something that would have to be done by the Members' Services Committee instead.

That was until today, when I noticed this announcement of the latest Orders-in-Council.

As was the case back in May 2008, when cabinet raised their own pay by 30%, there was a note at the bottom of the O.C. announcement that there had been an amendment to the MLA remuneration order.

HERE is the change.

Interestingly, (if you are a nerd like me) the change isn't officially to the additional payment for being premier or a cabinet minister as the October 15th news release suggested.  I'm guessing this is because the cabinet doesn't have the power to change those figures, only the Members' Services Committee does.

So, as you can see here, they changed their monthly payment for sitting on committees instead:

1   effective October 15, 2009,

            (a)        in section 3(2) by striking out “$3500” and substituting $2967”;

            (b)        in section 3(3) by striking out “$4500” and substituting $3483”;

Of course, those figures were $0.00 prior to May 2008.  As it was assumed for the extra $63k they got for sitting on cabinet they would also attend committee meetings.

Anyway, I decided to double-check the figures and they don’t quite match what was promised on October 15^th, 2009.

In that news release, the premier’s pay cut was going to be $12,196, however, according to the Order-in-Council, the pay cut will actually be $12,204, meaning the premier is taking an additional $8 pay cut. 

As for cabinet ministers, the original pay cut was to be $6,391, but it will actually be $6,396, or an additional $5 pay cut.

It’s pretty clear this is a rounding issue.  Without going to the exact cent it would have been impossible to change the monthly amount to equal the exact pay cut. 

So, obviously they decided to round the cut up, rather than down.

And look at the bright-side for taxpayers, this extra cut will save $123 annually.

Huzzah!