The House of Commons says a Conservative MP who attempted to turn down a 4.2 percent pay raise cannot legally refuse the increase.
Conservative MP Mike Dawson filed an application for judicial review in Federal Court in June seeking to block the $8,800 annual pay raise, after saying it was “distasteful” for parliamentarians to receive the increase while Canadians are struggling with a cost-of-living crisis.
But Clerk of the House of Commons Eric Janse said in an affidavit filed in Federal Court that all members of Parliament must be paid the amounts set out in legislation and that it would be illegal to deviate from those amounts….