The House of Commons has stated that it was necessary to raise the salary of a Member of Parliament from New Brunswick, regardless of his personal preferences. In a legal document submitted to the Federal Court, House clerk Eric Janse explained that all MPs must receive the salaries specified by law, and any deviation from this would be unlawful and impractical.
Conservative MP Mike Dawson from Miramichi-Grand Lake had filed a court application in June seeking to block the $8,800 raise that Parliament intended to award him. In response, Janse filed an affidavit last month emphasizing that the sessional allowance for MPs must be paid according to the amounts outlined in the Parliament of Canada Act, including regular adjustments.
Granting Dawson the option to decline the raise would entail additional administrative tasks for House staff to maintain a separate calculation of his sessional allowance each year, which would be a unique procedure only for him during his tenure as an MP.
Last year, the base salary for MPs was $208,900, which increased to $217,700 on April 1, following federal legislation that ties MP salaries to a formula based on private-sector salary increases.
Dawson has expressed his belief that accepting an $8,800 raise while many Canadians face financial challenges is unjust. Drawing from his experience as a business owner, he highlighted that deducting federal taxes from employees’ pay is a straightforward process and should not be overly complex.
Despite donating his raise to charity, Dawson contends that he should have the right to refuse the raise entirely. The House of Commons Speaker Francis Scarpaleggia’s spokesperson, Olivier Duhaime, indicated that neither Scarpaleggia nor Janse would comment on the matter, with full legal arguments expected to be presented in the coming months.