UPDATED: Report on MLA pay released

Former Supreme Court of Canada Justice John Major has wrapped up his independent review of compensation, benefits and allowances to be paid members of the Alberta legislature.

He has submitted his report and recommendations to outgoing speaker Ken Kowalski, who released the findings to the public 3:30 Wednesday afternoon.

The 327-page document includes recommendations to set pay for ministers at $134,000, and $201,000 for the speaker and leader of the opposition, with the salaries being reviewed every four years.

He suggests compensation the basic MLA role should be paid as a single amount and encompass all legislative, constituency and committee duties. All in all, this will make MLAs' salaries a little less than what they earn now.

For those who have additional responsibilities associated with chairing committees, Major recommends an appropriate stipend be paid to the chair (or presiding Member) of all Assembly and Government committees. The stipend would be paid on a per-meeting basis.

That's in contrast to the 21 MLAs who were getting paid $1,000 each month for sitting on a committee that hadn't met in nearly 4 years. (Redford ordered PC MLAs to pay back the money).

As for the Office of Premier, Major believes pay should be increased proportionally with the duties and responsibilities of the role.

Redford said she found the Premier salary recommendations quite surprising.

"Not at all what I expected and not something that we will be implementing," she says. "I could not take that, I would not take that. It is not what Albertans want. I don't think it's appropriate."

Meanwhile, Major is also recommending the tax-free allowance be retained. If Alberta's Legislative Assembly decides to eliminating it, he does include provisions for that option.

The current transition allowance, on the other hand, should be discontinued, Major argues, and replaced with a reduced one which would have MLAs paid two months basic salary for every year served to a maximum of twelve months.

Major would also like see the present RRSP allowance contributions given to MLAs be discontinued.

However, he suggests re-instituting a pension plan for MLAs, which would be "implemented on a go-forward basis with no recognition of past service" - something that isn't sitting well with Scott Hennig of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

"They're recommending a defined benefit gold plated pension plan - the same kind of pension plan Ralph Klein got rid of by demand back in 1993," says Hennig, who also disagrees with the recommendation of retaining tax-free allowances and the reduced transition allowances.

Hennig is in favour of the new proposed MLA salary, though, which he says is actually $500 less than what the Canadian Taxpayers Federation recommended.

Before completing his review, Major held public hearings in Edmonton and Calgary and almost three hundred people submitted written presentations to him.

Official opposition leader Danielle Smith addressed the report in a news conference Tuesday. "I'm hoping it does not show an increase in MLA or cabinet pay. That's what I'm most worried about."

Smith said the Wildrose believes the severance package needs to be changed so it’s capped at one year, and that MLA and cabinet salaries should be reduced.

“We thought the cabinet pay should be reduced by 30%, we think that there should be a fully transparent, fully taxable MLA salary and that it should be 5% less than what it currently is now.”

Kowalski has said he won’t be commenting on the findings. Major will address questions Thursday.

His report will now head to the House for review. How much of it is accepted and implemented by the Redford government still remains up in the air.

You can see Justice Major's full report below:

MLA Compensation Review - May 2012 Report

With files from Vassy Kapelos, Global News