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Double indemnities: How much do we pay our MLAs?

Complex system adds up to big dollars for Nunavut MLAs

At the top of the heap: At $133,420, Premier Paul Okalik was the best paid member of the Nunavut legislature between April 1, 2001 and March 31, 2002.

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(FILE PHOTOS)

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Nunatsiaq News

It’s not an easy task to explain how — and how much — Nunavut MLAs are paid for doing their jobs.

That’s because their compensation system, as written into the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act (1999), is set out in a complex schedule of payments — called "indemnities" and "allowances."

"Indemnities" are the payments that MLAs get for doing their jobs — what the rest of us call "salary."

"Allowances" are payments that MLAs get for expenses they incur while doing their jobs.

There are two kinds of allowances:

• the "living allowance," which covers things like accomodation, meals and taxis when they are away from home attending legislative assembly or legislative committee meetings, and other business; and

• the "constituency expenses," which are supposed to cover the cost of hiring a constituency assistant, maintaining a constituency office, publishing a constituency newsletter, and so on.

Constituency expenses are not included in the charts printed on this page — but those amounts generally range from about $30,000 to $45,000 a year per MLA.

Bringing home the bacon: At $93,660, Uqqumiut MLA David Iqaqrialu was the highest-paid regular MLA between April 1, 2001 and March 31, 2002.

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What are regular members paid?

The "total indemnities" earned by each regular member include the following payments: an MLA indemnity, paid to all elected members, of $37,706 a year, plus a constituency indemnity of $19,151 a year. The first $1,000 of the MLA indemnity is tax-free.

After that it gets complicated. Each regular MLA is paid additional amounts for extra duties and for serving on committees. "Extra duties" include jobs such as chairing the committee of the whole and chairing various standing and special committees.

The "committee indemnity" is for time spent serving on legislative committees. That amount will vary depending on how many committees a member sits on and how many committee meetings he or she attends.

Uqqumiut MLA David Iqaqrialu, for example, got extra duty payments worth $8,835 in 2001-02, and a committee indemnity of $6,657 — one of the reasons he was the highest paid regular MLA that year, at $93,660.

Nanulik MLA James Arvaluk, on the other hand, got a committee indemnity of only $3,119 and no extra duty payments — which explains why he was among the lowest paid MLAs that year, at $80,075.

All MLAs benefited from the same retroactive pay increases that all other GN employees got in 2001-02 after the settlement of their collective agreement. So that year they recieved extra amounts ranging from $4,260 (Rebekah Williams) to $14,235 (Paul Okalik).

Lastly, all MLAs get the same northern allowances paid to GN employees, which vary, depending on their community of residence.

The "total indemnities" listed below include all indemnities, retroactive pay and northern allowance paid to regular MLAs in 2001-02.

At $75,717, Quttiktuq MLA Rebekah Williams was the lowest-paid MLA between April 1, 2001 and March 31, 2002. Because she took her seat in January 2001, she was entitled to a much smaller retroactive pay amount than other MLAs received.

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Cabinet members

Cabinet ministers get the same MLA indemnity paid to regular MLAs — $37,706, plus a constituency indemnity of $6,384.

On top of that, all cabinet ministers, except the premier, get a ministerial indemnity of $59,426. The premier gets a special indemnity of $64,617.

As Speaker of the assembly, Kevin O’Brien gets the same constituency indemnity paid to cabinet ministers — $6,384, and a special "speaker indemnity" of $59,426, the same amount paid as a ministerial indemnity to all cabinet ministers except the premier.

Unlike MLAs, cabinet ministers get no indemnities for extra duties or committee work.

But they all get northern allowance payments, which vary depending on their community of resdence.

And all cabinet ministers cashed in on the retrocative pay sweepstakes last year. Premier Paul Okalik took home an extra $14,235 in retrocative pay, while Peter Kattuk took home $12,548, and Kelvin Ng, Ed Picco, Peter Kilabuk, Jack Anawak, Manitok Thompson took home $13,555 each in retroactive pay. Olayuk Akesuk got an extra $11,121 in retroactive pay.

Source: Report tabled in the Nunavut legislative assembly last week.

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