It is one long-standing Liberal policy that the Progressive Conservatives have no intention of changing.

As MPPs head off for the Christmas break this weekend, they will also mark the 10th anniversary of a pay freeze imposed upon them by former Liberal premier Dalton McGuinty.

The legacy of McGuinty’s move is so strong that neither his Grit successor, Kathleen Wynne, nor current Tory Premier Doug Ford would dare lift it.

“MPPs have not gotten a raise and that’s the plan going forward — zero per cent,” Treasury Board President Peter Bethlenfalvy said earlier this week.

“All 124 people in the legislature work very hard and … they’re not asking for raises and certainly not given the circumstances — the fiscal situation that we’ve inherited,” he said.

Bethlenfalvy has been scrambling for ways to save money as the Tories struggle with a deficit that is projected to be $9 billion this year up from $7.4 billion in 2018-19.

He is the main architect of Bill 124, the controversial legislation that limits public-sector wage increases to one per cent annually for the next three years.

Unions have launched a legal challenge arguing it is unconstitutional because it infringes upon collective bargaining rights.

MPPs, of course, are not unionized.

Bethlenfalvy said “unless we can show a balanced budget, which we’re far away from,” MPPs will continue to have their pay frozen.

That’s because by law they can only receive a pay hike when the treasury is in the black.

With the Tories expected to run deficits until 2023, parliamentarians’ wages should remain the same for the foreseeable future.

MPPs earn $116,550 with ministers making $165,851, the leader of the opposition $180,886, and the premier $208,974.

In comparison, federal MPs, who received two per cent raises in April, make $178,900, cabinet ministers earn $264,400 — as do opposition leaders — and the prime minister is paid $357,800.

According to the Bank of Canada, if MPPs’ pay had risen at the rate of inflation, they would earn about $139,000 this year. Similarly, $116,550 today is worth $97,800 in 2009 dollars.

McGuinty imposed the freeze in Ontario a decade ago this week against the backdrop of the worst global recession since the Great Depression.

Saddled with a record $24.7 billion provincial deficit in December 2009 — when the budget was $113.7 billion compared to $163.4 billion this year — he signalled to public servants that politicians would “lead by example.”

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“Ask not what your provincial government can impose on you; ask what as a member of the public sector you can bring to the table,” McGuinty said at the time.

“In some ways, those of us within the public sector have been sheltered from the full ravages of this private-sector recession. So what is it that we can do now, working together, to take into account what’s happened to public finances?”

The 2009 decision came three years after MPPs voted themselves 25 per cent increases. That 2006 hike had been implemented after many years of an earlier pay freeze.

MPPs have not had a pension plan since former Tory premier Mike Harris wound it down more than 20 years ago.

In its place, there is a small defined contribution RRSP similar to what some private-sector employees get, but no defined benefit lifetime pension like teachers and many other public servants receive.

When McGuinty was premier, several PC MPPs quietly approached him about reinstating the defined benefit pension, but one official said the Liberal premier declined because it would be politically foolish.

“Dalton told them, ‘you guys can bring it back when you’re in office,’” recalled the Liberal insider, speaking on condition of anonymity in order to relay private conversations.

Similarly, Wynne, who succeeded McGuinty in 2013, also spurned MPPs’ push to resurrect a pension.

While the Tories ended nearly 15 years of Liberal rule when Ford swept to power in June 2018, there has been no indication of any willingness to revive the MPP pension plan.

In fact, two sources close to the premier said this week such a proposal is a non-starter.

Robert Benzie is the Star’s Queen’s Park bureau chief and a reporter covering Ontario politics. Follow him on Twitter: @robertbenzie

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