On April 1, Canadian MPs and the prime minister will get a raise, and a new
poll shows 80 percent of Canadians are opposed to it.
A backbench MP now receives an annual salary of $189,500, according to the Leger
poll commissioned by the Canadian Taxpayer Federation (CTF). Such an MP is due to receive a raise of $5,100 annually, the fourth raise since the onset of the pandemic. The three previous MP raises totalled $10,600.
The prime minister is set to receive a raise of $10,200, said the CTF in a March 27
release, citing published contract data.
Carbon tax and alcohol tax are also supposed to rise on April 1, notes CTF director Franco Terrazzano. "MPs are taking higher pay the same day they take more money from Canadians and that’s wrong,” he said in the release.
With the April 1 increase, the total carbon tax on a litre of gasoline will be 14 cents, according to CTF. On a cubic metre of natural gas, it will be 12 cents.
The poll found 10 percent of Canadians support the MP pay raise, and 3 percent strongly support it. About 60 percent strongly oppose it, and 20 percent somewhat oppose it.
More women expressed opposition than men, and more Albertans than Canadians in other regions. Respondents aged 18–34 were more likely to support the raise. Respondents from Quebec were slightly more likely to support the raise.
CTF released a
similar poll last year, with 79 percent of Canadians also against an MP raise at that time. The federal government stopped automatic annual pay raises in the years following the 2008 recession, CFT said, and suggested the government do the same during the pandemic.
