Hostile critics of Canada’s democracy in the past might be missing a giant clue to our nation’s political shortcomings in days of old. The fact is, our parliamentarians did not receive an annual salary until beginning in 1953. For almost a century following Confederation, they were paid sessionally, and today – even though they now receive a monthly salary - it is still known as a “sessional indemnity.” To be sure, this means that the job of representation in the House of Commons was long skewed to those who could afford to run for office, no mean feat in a country as large as Canada.
Here, for the benefit of readers, is a more detailed History of Remuneration as put out by the Government of Canada:
The reason I sought public office was to give something back to the community. Yet the work of parliamentarians, who enter public life at great cost to their professional and private lives, is rarely accepted for what it is, and many times is seen in a negative light.[1]
Practices surrounding compensation for Members of Parliament for their service to Canada’s parliamentary business have varied throughout history. Introduction of the sessional indemnity in 1867 was designed to compensate these part-time members for losses incurred while they were in Ottawa, away from their homes and ordinary way of earning a living. The idea of membership in the House of Commons being a parttime job declined as the length of parliamentary sessions increased, and as the sessions lengthened and members’ responsibilities grew, sessional indemnities rose as well. A pension plan for members was established in 1952, and by 1953, the job was well on the way to being considered a full-time occupation: the amount of the indemnity no longer depended on the length of a session, and members started to receive an annual salary, paid monthly.
In 1867, parliamentary business required each member of the House of Commons and the Senate to sacrifice between three and five weeks each year to tend to the nation’s needs (see Appendix, Duration of Sessions of Parliament). For this service to their country, the Members’ Indemnity Act of 1867 provided a sessional indemnity of $600 for each session that extended beyond 30 days. This indemnity was payable at an interim daily rate of $4. Any of the $600 that remained unpaid at the daily rate was paid at the end of the session. For sessions of 30 days or less, each member of the Senate and the House of Commons received a per diem allowance of $6. This was not considered a salary but was intended to compensate for lost income from private-sector employment or a profession.
In 1873 the sessional indemnity was increased to $1,000, and the daily rate for sessions of 30 days or less was revised to $10. In 1886, the Members’ Indemnity Act was incorporated into the Senate and House of Commons Act. At that time, the interim daily rate for sessions extending beyond 30 days was raised to $7. According to the preamble to the act, the indemnity was raised to reflect longer sessions and increases in the cost of living.
The sessional indemnity was raised to $1,500 in 1901, but the daily rate for sessions hat did not extend beyond 30 days remained at $10.
In 1905, the maximum sessional indemnity was adjusted to $2,500. The interim daily rate for sessions that extended beyond 30 was increased to $10, and the daily rate for sessions lasting not more than 30 days was increased to $20.
In 1920, the sessional allowance was adjusted to $4,000 and the minimum duration for which a sessional indemnity was payable was extended from 30 to 50 days. The per diem rate for sessions not extending beyond 50 days was raised to $50.
The minimum duration was increased again in 1923, from 50 to 65 days. The interim daily rate for sessions lasting more than 65 days was raised to $20, but the per diem rate for sessions not extending 65 days remained at $25.
In 1945, a new allowance was introduced: members of the House of Commons and the Senate received an allowance of $2,000 for expenses incidental to the discharge of their duties as members. The allowance was payable at the end of the calendar year and was subject to deductions in respect of non-attendance at sittings. The allowance was taxable in the case of ministers of the Crown, senators, and the leader of the opposition in the House of Commons, but not in the case of members of the House of Commons.
The sessional basis for remuneration was discontinued in 1953, to be replaced by annual remuneration, although the name did not change. A sessional indemnity of $8,000 per year was payable in monthly installments on the last day of each month, while the incidental expense allowance of $2,000 per year, established in 1945, was made payable quarterly.
In 1963, the sessional indemnity was increased to $12,000, the incidental expense allowance was raised to $6,000 for members of the House of Commons, and the tax exemption on the expense allowance was extended to members of both chambers.
The sessional indemnity was raised again in 1971, to $18,000, and the incidental expense allowance rose to $8,000. This increase was attributable mainly to the recommendations of the Advisory Committee to Review Members’ Allowances, appointed by the government in 1970. The committee reviewed the financial arrangements for senators and members of the House of Commons, including both the sessional indemnity and the incidental expense allowances, and recommended the changes it considered appropriate.
Between 1974 and 1991, the sessional indemnity and the incidental expense allowance were raised on January 1 each year (or, on two occasions, twice in a year on the recommendation of a commission appointed to review the allowances).
Increases were suspended for two years beginning in 1975 and, as explained earlier, allowances have been frozen since 1991
Source: Supporting Democracy, Vol. 2. Research Paper 2 (Ottawa: Minister of Government Works and Public Services, 1998), pp. 32,33.
[1] Speech by the Honourable Gilbert Parent, Speaker of the House of Commons, to the Canadian Club of Calgary, 19 January 1996.
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