PQ members donating part of their salary increases to community organizations

Parti Quebecois MNA Pascal Berube responds to reporters questions as PQ MNA Joel Arseneau, right looks on at a news conference, Tuesday, November 19, 2024 at the legislature in Quebec City. (Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press)

The Parti Québécois (PQ) says its members will donate nearly $80,000 in salary increases to community organizations across Quebec.

All four of the party's MNAs are participating in the initiative after promising to do so when the national assembly adopted a bill last year that gave all 125 members of the Quebec legislature a $30,000 raise. The PQ and Québec solidaire (QS) voted against the bill sponsored by the Coalition Avenir Québec's (CAQ) Simon Jolin-Barrette, while all MNAs from the CAQ and the Quebec Liberal Party voted for it.

The PQ had promised to only accept the average salary increase granted to public sector workers and donate the rest of the pay raise to charitable causes.

PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon said he would donate $27,000 of his own money to more than 30 organizations across the province.

"It's a question of being consistent with the people who elected us. In the midst of negotiations with the public sector and in the face of high inflation, we felt it was only fair to accept the equivalent of what would be granted, on average, to teachers, nurses and public sector workers," said Plamondon in a news release on Monday.

"We kept our promise and are giving the difference to causes that matter to us, such as food aid and the well-being of children, women and families."

MNAs Pascal Bérubé, Joël Arseneau and Pascal Paradis will be donating more than $52,000.

Arseneau will be donating part of his raise to create a Medical Travel Assistance Fund to help people in the Magdalen Islands who have to pay for medical costs that aren't covered.

Meanwhile, Bérubé said he will donate funds to help patients in the Matanie, Matapédia and Mitis RCMs who have to travel to receive medical care outside the region.

The release said Paradis, who was only elected five months after the pay raise was adopted, is donating some of his salary to several organizations in the Quebec City region and on Quebec's South Shore to support education, food aid, the fight against poverty, homelessness, as well as initiatives to welcoming new immigrants and to support young people, women, and Indigenous Peoples.

The party says all of its members will keep their promise until the next provincial election in October 2026.

When Bill 24 was passed on June 6, 2023, the QS said all of its members would give back all or part of the increase. This year, QS co-spokesperson Ruba Ghazal, and members Sol Zanetti, Andres Fontecilla and Alexandre Leduc are donating at least a third of the increase to OUI Québec, a non-profit, pro-independence organization.

When the bill was passed, a base salary for an MNA was $101,561, which was increased to $131,766 after the vote. MNAs with additional duties, such as ministers and opposition leaders, received an even greater increase.