Newsflash for Premier David Eby: you don’t reduce costs for families by appointing a historically expensive cabinet.
Eby chose to pad politicians’ pockets as his first action as re-elected premier by handing out cabinet positions like participation ribbons at the expense of tapped-out taxpayers.
Big cabinets come hand-in-hand with big costs for taxpayers. Instead of handing out pay raises to his caucus, Eby should be focusing on making life more affordable for British Columbians stuck with the bill.
Appointing MLAs to cabinet positions as ministers, ministers of state or parliamentary secretaries comes with a big taxpayer-funded pay raise. Eby appointed 41 MLAs to cabinet, which is a 42 per cent increase from former premier John HorganBԪַ 28-person cabinet in 2017.
If Eby kept cabinet at 2017 levels, taxpayers would save nearly $500,000 this year alone. That shakes out to around $2 million over the four-year term of this government.
EbyBԪַ decision to appoint 23 ministers, four ministers of state and 14 parliamentary secretaries will cost taxpayers a total of $1.9 million this year, on top of each MLAs’ $120,000 base salary.
The premierBԪַ salary works out to $227,000 per year, while ministers take home $179,000. Ministers of state are junior ministers who are given less responsibility and power than full ministers. They take home $161,000 per year.
Parliamentary secretaries are glorified assistants for ministers. Each parliamentary secretary is handed $137,000 from taxpayers per year.
Sure, British Columbians expect the government to appoint ministers to run our ministries. And sure, those ministers do more work than other MLAs so they should probably pay bump.
But a 42 per cent increase in the size of cabinet since 2017 is eye-watering.
Do any British Columbians feel like they’re getting 42 per cent better service from the government? The numbers don’t suggest we are.
According to Food Banks Canada, 45 per cent of British Columbians feel worse off than they did last year, while one-in-five are struggling with food insecurity.
And the taxpayer-funded bonuses for EbyBԪַ colleagues in the NDP don’t end at his bloated cabinet. On top of the 41 cabinet picks, the NDP will also start the legislative session with a house leader, speaker and deputy speakers, government whip and deputy whip, and caucus chair.
Every single NDP MLA is receiving an appointment from Eby which comes with big taxpayer top-up.
Cabinet positions aren’t supposed to be dished out like participation ribbons to anyone with a pulse who happens to stumble into the legislative assembly wearing an NDP pin.
After the recent election, which the NDP won by a single seat, Eby was quick to acknowledge that his government needed to do more to address affordability.
“British Columbians… expect us to focus on the challenges they worry about at the kitchen table,” Eby wrote. “Specifically we will work to: reduce costs for families.”
Yet, with his very first act as re-elected premier, he did the exact opposite. Eby made life more unaffordable for British Columbians by taking more money out of your pockets.
While more British Columbians than ever are turning to food banks and lying awake at night wondering how they’re going to make rent or mortgage payments, politicians shouldn’t be laughing their way to the bank.
EbyBԪַ new government is already turning out to be a tale of taxpayer have-nots and NDP have-yachts.
Carson Binda is British Columbia Director
for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
