VICTORIA — Premier Christy Clark has backtracked on raises she proposed for top political staff immediately after last month’s election, admitting the idea had enraged a public who elected her on the promise of controlling government spending.

“I think giving people raises didn’t sit well with citizens. I certainly heard that over the last week,” Clark told reporters Wednesday as she announced she would cancel all but one of the controversial pay increases.

“I said during the election we’re going to control spending, we’re going to make government smaller if we can, and that’s going to mean tightening our belts. I don’t think the raises struck the right note and I don’t think it was consistent for people,” she added.

Clark said the restructuring had reduced the overall cost of political staff — given that some people had left and been replaced by those who were making less money — although she acknowledged the optics were all wrong.

“I take responsibility for it,” she said. “I’m the premier and I’m fixing it.”

In one of her very first moves after the May 14 election, Clark and her outgoing cabinet increased the top allowable salaries for political aides to $102,000 from a previous ceiling of $94,500 (initially the outgoing cabinet raised the maximum to $105,000, but the incoming cabinet brought the amount down before the issue became public). The move came as part of a reorganization that elevated top advisers from the role of ministerial assistants to chiefs of staff for each individual minister.

Clark’s reversal came about a week after the issue publicly erupted, and three weeks before she will face voters in a Westside-Kelowna byelection.

Within an hour of Clark’s announcement Wednesday, New Democratic Party leader Adrian Dix touted the reversal as a victory for his party’s candidate in the Kelowna byelection, Carole Gordon.

“I’m certainly going to be raising it as the first victory for Carole Gordon in the election campaign,” said Dix, in an interview from Kelowna. “We’ve been raising the issue a lot, and I think people here were definitely saying how unacceptable it was for the Liberal Party to be increasing wheelchair fees while they raised their own salaries.”

Dix has called the raises “self-centred” and “out of touch”.

“It obviously shows that the Liberal party, left to its own devices, is tone deaf,” he said Wednesday.

Although Clark rolled back the majority of pay raises, she did allow an increase for the position of her own deputy chief of staff.

Clark had hired her assistant campaign director, Michele Cadario, at an annual salary of $195,148 – or a 35-per-cent increase from the previous deputy, Kim Haakstad.

On Wednesday, Clark said Cadario will still see an increase because her role encompasses Haakstad’s former deputy position, as well as one that had been done by a director of policy.

But, Clark added, Cadario’s increase will be reduced from what it would have been, meaning she will now get $175,000 per year.

Dix called the move unacceptable.

“The idea that (Cadario is) doing two jobs, this is disrespectful of reality,” he said.

“The people who are doing two jobs are people who are seeing their wages go down, who have to do two jobs to support their kids,” he added. “Those are the people the premier should be thinking about and not her political associates and friends.”

jfowlie@vancouversun.com