The House of Commons has stated that it was necessary to increase the salary of a Member of Parliament from New Brunswick, regardless of the MP’s willingness to accept the raise. According to an affidavit submitted in Federal Court by House clerk Eric Janse, all MPs are legally entitled to receive the specified amounts set by legislation, and any deviation from this standard would be unlawful and impractical.
Miramichi-Grand Lake Conservative MP Mike Dawson had filed for a judicial review in Federal Court in June to block the $8,800 raise from being awarded to him. In response to this, Janse filed an affidavit last month asserting that the sessional allowance for MPs must be paid in accordance with the Parliament of Canada Act, including all relevant annual adjustments.
Granting Dawson the option to decline the raise would necessitate special administrative procedures for calculating and maintaining a separate sessional allowance for him each year, as long as he holds his position as an MP. The base salary for MPs was $208,900 last year and increased to $217,700 on April 1, in line with federal legislation that indexes MP pay to private-sector salary increases.
Despite the raise, Dawson believes it is ethically wrong to accept additional compensation when many Canadians are facing financial challenges. He compared the simplicity of electronic pay processes in business to the ease of stopping a pay raise, emphasizing his commitment to donating the raise to charity but expressing his desire to have the option to object to it completely.
House of Commons Speaker Francis Scarpaleggia and Janse have declined to provide interviews on the matter, with spokesperson Olivier Duhaime mentioning that full legal arguments for the case will be submitted within the next two months.