The Quebec Liberal Get together (PLQ) is paying its new chief, Charles Milliard, a wage of $230,591 per yr.
That is the settlement reached between him and the social gathering, in response to info supplied to La Presse Canadienne on Wednesday by a spokesperson. It’s the similar because the one drawn up for his predecessor, Pablo Rodriguez.
Chief compensation has been a contentious challenge for the PLQ previously — notably throughout the time of chief Jean Charest, who acquired a $75,000 complement even when he was premier — however the social gathering is now being clear.
The PLQ is paying Milliard from its personal funds since, like Rodriguez, he isn’t an elected member of the Nationwide Meeting and subsequently doesn’t at present obtain any wage.
The $230,591 corresponds precisely to the wage he would obtain if he have been Chief of the Official Opposition, heading his parliamentary group within the Nationwide Meeting.
The settlement is legitimate till Oct. 5, the day of the overall election, since Milliard intends to be elected because the MNA for Orford and thus enter the Nationwide Meeting.
Final summer season, after Rodriguez’s election as chief of the PLQ at its conference, the social gathering additionally justified its choice to pay its chief a wage equal to the Chief of the Opposition wage as established by the foundations of the Nationwide Meeting.
“This choice displays the character of his present duties, which correspond in each respect to these of a nationwide social gathering chief able to organize for presidency,” the social gathering defined.
“He’s now assuming the duty of main the parliamentary crew, defining the social gathering’s strategic instructions, getting ready the federal government different, and publicly representing the Quebec Liberal Get together all through the province.”
Rodriguez needed to resign in December following controversies surrounding the financing of his management marketing campaign.
Milliard, who completed second in that race, was topped chief on Feb. 13, on the finish of a nomination interval throughout which no different candidate certified.
In October 2020, the Parti Québécois (PQ) additionally selected to pay its chief, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, a wage after his nomination as social gathering chief, earlier than he was elected because the Member of the Nationwide Meeting within the using of Camille-Laurin within the October 2022 basic election.
The Nationwide Government Council then determined to pay him $120,000 per yr.
The identical remedy was allegedly given to Jacques Parizeau in 1988, when he succeeded Pierre Marc Johnson, and to André Boisclair in 2005, when he took over from Bernard Landry.
In 2008, Charest’s Liberal authorities was plunged into controversy following a leak by social gathering president Jean D’Amour.
He revealed that Charest had been receiving a wage of $75,000 per yr from the Quebec Liberal Get together (PLQ) since he grew to become social gathering chief in 1998, even after turning into premier of Quebec in 2003. This place, nonetheless, assured him a wage of $175,000 per yr.
In December 2010, he needed to relinquish his social gathering allowance when Invoice 48 was handed, which subjected all elected officers to a code of ethics.
Below this code, “an elected official might not obtain, immediately or not directly and in any type in any way, a wage, allowance, monetary help or every other profit from a political social gathering or a celebration physique.”
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews