Mr. Speaker, it might not come as a great shock to people but I have been actually advised by some people, as we all seek advice, that I should not talk about this issue.
I strongly disagree. I am prepared to stand here, talk about the issue and defend why I am prepared to vote for the bill. I will do it in this place, in my office in the Confederation Building, in my office in Streetsville and in my community. I am prepared to be held accountable.
I am not prepared to say what I have heard others say and what the previous speaker said. I will not say that unless I get what I want I will vote against the bill but that because I am worth the same as every MP I will also accept the pay increase.
It is not parliamentary to use words like hypocrisy, so I will not. However that is the most astounding position a parliamentarian could take. Members should have the courage to be accountable for the decisions they make and make the decisions they think are just and fair.
I was first elected municipally in 1978. I served for almost 10 years as a municipal councillor in the city of Mississauga. One of the issues we dealt with in the early years was the rate of pay. It was a job that changed dramatically from 1974 when the city was created to the early eighties when the rapid growth of wards and constituencies turned it into a full time job with tremendous pressure. It was a seven day a week job. It was not uncommon to work 18 hours a day. We needed more staff, more resources and better equipment.
Frankly the councillors in those days deserved a pay increase and we went through one. It was horrific. It was very difficult to sit there and have people scream at us that we did not deserve it. People said it should not fall to elected representatives to make the decision and that someone else should vote on it. They said there had to be a better way.
I went through the reverse when I was elected an MPP in the province of Ontario and we took a pay decrease. Let me say how many phone calls came in congratulating me for reducing my pay by 5%, the taxable portion, from $45,000 down to roughly $42,000. I am quite sure no one remembers that occurred and yet we had to vote on it.
If one must vote on a decrease I suppose one must vote on an increase. I have the greatest difficulty with the misinformation being perpetrated and bought, by and large, by members of the public. They are calling it an opting out clause. We could take that literally as we did with the pension.
We all know what happened to the Canadian Alliance members who wore pigs on their lapels, made grunting noises in this place and said they would never come to the trough and take the pension. They turned around and opted back into the pension just in time. I never opted out. I have always thought a pension was fair for a legislator or member of parliament.
I know what happened over there. They can heckle if they wish, but we have in the bill an opting in provision which is substantially different. Once the bill is passed all members in this place on all sides would have a period of 90 days to inform the payroll department whether they wish to accept the increased pay. Members who fail to do so would not receive the increase.
Another interesting point about the opting in provision is that it is private. It is between members of parliament and the payroll department. It is not between members of parliament and their constituents. It is between members of parliament and their consciences. If members vote against the pay raise they in good conscience should not opt into the plan and accept the increase. That is accountability. Let us understand that.
I hear crying from across the way that it is unfair, that it is the Prime Minister being a bully. It is nothing of the sort.
It is nothing of the sort. Members in this place who believe the bill is wrong because of the timing, the amount or any of the issues involved have an obligation to their constituents and to their own consciences to vote against it. I have no difficulty with any member on any side of the House voting against the bill.
I have grave difficulty when members grandstand in this place or in their constituencies, condemn the government and say the bill is awful, vote against it and then opt in. Members will not be in a position to sit back and allow it to happen automatically. They must physically do something to obtain the raise.
It is time we looked at what has happened with public wages and turned it around to all areas. What has happened to teachers and nurses is unconscionable. It is time to end it. Why has it happened? It has happened because all of us, on all sides of this place and in all legislatures of this great country, have worshipped at the altar of tax cuts to the point where we have gutted the public service. We are all culpable and we are all responsible.
PSAC is currently negotiating with the treasury board for an increase. It is time we were fair. It is time we looked at increases for people who do the important work of the public. I have listened for years to the denigration of public servants, of those who work for the people of Canada. They deserve to be paid.
In the limited time I have I will touch on another issue. It is the height of twisted logic for the leader of the fifth party to stand in this place, shaking à la John Diefenbaker, and tell us his caucus will vote against this dastardly pay raise while he continues to receive a supplement from his own party of $200,000 per year in addition to his pay as a member of parliament. For the member to stand in his place and pontificate while he accepts $200,000 a year from his own party, when the party is in debt by over $6 million, must turn people like Mr. Diefenbaker over in their graves.
