Editor:
In The Guardian of Tuesday, Feb. 26, one of the headlines was that the MLAs will get a pay raise of one per cent.
This in a time of an economic downturn is, for an ordinary citizen, hard to understand. It says in the article that the base salary for MLAs is $65,344. One per cent of that is $654.44. In the article they figure it at something over $2,000. They must have included the pay raise of two per cent that went in on Jan. 1, 2013. This one per cent is going to amount to a lot of money no matter how you figure it.
Now in the same Guardian, there was a letter to the editor that states that 150,000-plus Canadians are homeless. Some families of nine live in apartments for two because that is all they can afford. With salaries from $65,000 to $140,000, would it not be nice if one MLA made a motion to send the one per cent pay increase for the first year to get better housing for one or two families? The positive outcome of a unanimous vote would impress every Islander.
Harry Nabuurs,
Montague
