Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 25/8/2017 (1123 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A decision earlier this year by Progressive Conservative MLAs to donate their cost-of-living increases back to the provincial treasury created concern and friction within Tory ranks, according to a letter obtained by the Free Press.

In early March, Premier Brian Pallister, surrounded by his caucus, announced that PC MLAs had agreed to forego a 1.6 per cent pay increase that was due them in the coming year. NDP and Liberal MLAs quickly said they would not accept the pay hike as well.

The Tories decided that individual MLAs would return the scheduled increase by cheque. It wasn't initially explained publicly that they would receive a charitable tax receipt for the amount they gave back.

For an MLA with no additional income, the tax credit covers the tax they are paying on the $1,488 annual increase. Before the pay hike, the base salary for MLAs stood at $93,025.

Steven Fletcher, then a PC caucus member, wrote a letter to Finance Minister Cameron Friesen on April 3 to complain about the issuance of tax receipts and the fact that the cost-of-living repayment issue was taking up considerable time at caucus meetings.

Fletcher, who has since been booted from Tory caucus for publicly challenging government policies, enclosed 12 post-dated cheques to reimburse taxpayers for the statutory increase in MLA pay and pointedly refused any tax receipts.

He wrote that he was "profoundly disappointed" that MLA salaries had become the "most discussed issue in caucus" since the April 19, 2016 election.

"We've been in office for 11 months, this issue has come up in at least 4 Caucus meetings, while there's no time to talk about anything else," Fletcher complained.

The April letter was contained in court documents filed by Fletcher earlier this month. The Assiniboia MLA, who now sits as an independent, is challenging the constitutionality of a provision of the Legislative Assembly Act that prevents members from crossing the floor between elections. Fletcher, a lifelong Progressive Conservative, has expressed no interest in joining another party; he's challenging the provision on principle.

Friesen defended the decision to issue tax receipts and denied there was a rift in caucus -- other than concerns raised by Fletcher.

The government asked officials in the Finance Department for advice on how to effectively freeze MLA pay and was told individual MLAs should simply repay the mandated increase by cheque, he said. MLA salaries and benefits are set by an independent commissioner.

It would have been unfair to expect MLAs to pay tax on the portion of their salaries that they were returning to government, Friesen said. He said the government wasn't doing anything untoward by issuing tax receipts.

"I don’t think MLAs should be called upon to pay their tax twice," the minister said in an interview on Friday.

Friesen said he wouldn't comment on caucus deliberations other than that PC MLAs had "a good discussion" on the matter and "we received unanimous support for these measures of all those members who are now in caucus."

NDP finance critic James Allum said the government should have frozen MLA salaries through legislation. That would have avoided the necessity of MLAs having to write cheques to refund previously mandated cost-of-living increases and having the government issue tax receipts.

"We just didn’t think it was the most transparent way of taking the freeze. We certainly thought they were grandstanding on the issue," Allum said of the March PC announcement.

NDP MLAs are also returning their pay increases to the government, while the Liberals are donating their increases to local charities instead.

PC caucus members announced they would not accept a pay increase just weeks before the government introduced legislation freezing public sector wages. The Tories said they would not accept any pay increases before the next general election.

Friesen said the government did not have time to legislate a wage freeze this past spring, but indicated that he would be pursuing that option in the coming year.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca