By Pepper Parr
May 31st, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
This might hurt.
Pay bumps and a pension plan legislation passed on Thursday
In 2009 Dalton McGuinty slapped the pay freeze on MPPs during the global financial crisis and subsequent Liberal and Tory governments kept it in place with support from the New Democrats.
The MPP pension plan was eliminated in 1995 by former PC Premier Mike Harris in a populist move designed to herald restraint at Queen’s Park.
Home to the well paid provincial politicians.
Home for the equally well paid federal politicians.
Under the legislation immediately passed Thursday with unanimous backing from the Tories, NDP, Liberals and Greens, the base salary for an MPP rises to $157,350 from $116,550 — a $40,800 raise retroactive to the February election.
MPPs will be eligible for a defined-benefit pension after six years of service starting next January. That means, like federal MPs, they will have to be re-elected in 2029 to qualify.
The new retirement benefits do not credit existing years served and are part of the public service pension plan in which bureaucrats are enrolled.
For example, a qualifying retiree would receive an annual initial pension of $33,425 at age 65 if they served six years in office.
Had MPP wages kept pace with inflation since 2008, their annual compensation would have been more than $10,000 higher at $167,790, according to the Bank of Canada.
The base rate is 75 per cent of the $209,800 paid to MPs, who receive annual raises every April. It will go up each year at the same pace as MP salaries do.
MPPs will still earn less than Toronto city councillors, who recently voted themselves 24 per cent hikes and make $170,558.
In neighbouring Mississauga, councillors earn $159,684.
Premier Doug Ford
Ford’s salary will jump to $282,129 from $208,975, a $73,154 increase.
NDP Leader Marit Stiles’s pay climbs to $244,207 from $180,886, a $63,341 raise.
Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie doesn’t have a seat in the legislature and is paid by her party.
But if Crombie does become an MPP, her pay would be $213,524, up from the $158,158 given to leaders of recognized parties.
Mike Schreiner’s Greens do not have official party status so he will be paid the MPPs’ base rate.
Cabinet ministers’ salaries will go to $223,909, a $58,058 boost from their current $165,851.
The government says the changes will cost the treasury an additional $6 million.
Prime Minister Mark Carney
In comparison, Prime Minister Mark Carney makes $419,600 while Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow takes home $225,304 annually.
Since winning power in 2018, Ford’s Tories previously insisted they would only end the freeze once the books were in the black.
But Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy, who shepherded the legislation, announced in the budget two weeks ago that Ontario’s deficit has ballooned to $14.6 billion for 2025-26 and there won’t be surplus until 2027-28.
“It’ll be at 75 per cent of the federal compensation. It’s still less than a Toronto city councillor will be paid or a Mississauga city councillor,” the treasurer noted.
Under the Tories, spending has gone up more than 50 per cent over former premier Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals in 2018 — significantly higher than the rate of inflation — and the provincial debt has skyrocketed by 51 per cent.
Over the past 20 or so years pretty much all private sector employers have moved away from defined benefit pension plans (DBPP) and replaced them going forward with defined contribution pension plans (DCPP).
Why is that?
DBPPs guarantee to the employee a specific dollar pension amount upon retirement. If the pension investments are not performing to the level needed in order to meet that commitment, the employer is faced with having to infuse large amounts of funds into the pension plan investments. In other words, the employer may have from time to time unbudgeted for liabilities. Employers don’t like those sort of surprises.
So, employers stopped their DBPPs and initiated DCPPs. With DCPPs an employer knows how much its contributions to the plan are going to be. There are no unknown potential liabilities.
So why on earth is the Provincial Government going against the grain and awarding itself and all MPPs a golden DBPP?
The employer who will be responsible to make up any funding shortfalls is in this instance the Ontario tax payer.
Why is a DCPP not good enough for MPPs?
In this article a Bank of Canada is made quoted as saying that even at the new salary levels MPPs have awarded themselves they are not keeping pace with inflation. That comment is made as if in mitigation of the size of the increase MPPs are to receive.
What employees anywhere have had their pay keep pace with inflation either from year to year or retroactively? Nurses ? No! Teachers? No! Doctors? No! Firemen? No !
Only in the cushy public sector are DBPP available and inflation matching pay raised expected.
MPPs and government employees all live off the sweat of the taxpayer.
There is no excuse for this kind of pay hike and cannot be justified based on the rate of inflation. The rest of the citizens certainly haven’t had this pay increase. At this point, our citizens are struggling to feed their families, let alone bolster the political pocketbook.
SHAME!!
About time.We only get what we pay for.
I would support a larger pay raise next year.
No wonder you find fewer lawyers running for office.
Graham
Please remember your statement “we only get what we pay for” when/if you consider moaning about you 2026 property tax increase.
On a lighter note, I heard this many, many years ago. It’s obviously tongue in cheek.
What do you call 200 drowned lawyers at the bottom of Lake Ontario?
Answer – A good start!