N.B. ministers' salaries set to rise as pay freeze ends

The Higgs government is taking its ministerial salaries back to the future, with a return to 2016 pay levels that will translate into generous increases.

Premier Blaine Higgs will see his total salary jump by $11,850, while most of his ministers will get hikes of $5,251, thanks to the expiry of a 2017 law.

Liberal Leader Roger Melanson fiercely condemned the pay hike, noting some public sector unions in the province have recently agreed to contracts that add up to 15 per cent pay raises over five years.

"He's giving himself 15 per cent, April 1, right away," Melanson said.

"Premier, are you having a hard time to pay the cost of living? Is that what it is? Because a lot of New Brunswickers are, and they're not getting a 15 per cent pay increase April 1."

Higgs defended the decision as one that simply takes his salary and that of his ministers back to what they were six years ago.

"What have we really done? Gone back to 2016 levels," he said, not mentioning that salaries were higher then.

The government is letting a provision of the Executive Council Act expire that was keeping salaries below where they were in 2016.

All MLAs get a base $85,000 salary which will not change under the expiration of the clause, though an all-party committee of MLAs is currently studying whether they are due for a raise.

But premiers, ministers and some other office-holders get extra pay on top of that.

Ministerial salaries will jump from $47,353 back to $52,614 for a total of $137,614, while the premier's, now $67,150, will return to $79,000 for a total of $164,000.

The expiry of the cabinet pay reduction, and the study of MLA salaries, marks the end of a series of convoluted and symbolic measures over the years designed to show that politicians were willing to apply financial restraint to their own incomes.

The Liberal government of Shawn Graham first froze MLA pay at $85,000 and the Gallant Liberals made the cut to cabinet salaries in 2015, saying the reduced pay would remain in place until the budget was balanced.

Then in 2016 and 2017, the Liberals forgot to pass legislation to override a law giving MLAs automatic pay increases.

They introduced legislation to retroactively re-freeze the MLA pay at $85,000 and extended the reduced ministerial salaries until March 31, 2021.

Last year the Higgs government extended the cabinet pay cut to March 31, 2022 the measure it is now allowing to expire.