1. bit courtesy of Courtesy of nottawa.
For the record, the grandstanding was not supplied by the Premier.
He is apparently still on some sort of vacation – yet again – and couldn’t be in the legislature.
2. Meanwhile, people in the province yesterday learned that – contrary to comments by his supporters – the Premier does collect his salary in full.
The admission came from finance minister Jerome Kennedy during questioning on the budget estimates:
Mr. Chairman, first, again, I think the Leader of the Opposition knows better in terms of the Premier’s salary. It is my understanding that Finance told him he had to take the salary in order to donate it to charity, which is essentially what he does. To leave any other impression, I would suggest, Mr. Chairman, is not fair. The Premier’s salary is provided to, I think it is the Williams Family Foundation, which then distributes it to charity. The Premier of this Province does not receive one cent to himself for the benefit of what he does. Unlike the rest of us, or at least unlike me, I use my salary to live.
And by “not one cent of benefit”, presumably the finance minister does not include in that estimate accumulating pension entitlements and taking the tax breaks on the donations which go – it must be pointed out – to the family charity run by his wife, daughter and family friend.
Notice, as well, the construction of Kennedy’s sentence which clearly leaves the impression the goal of the exercise was to make the donation, not avoid taking a salary.
He apparently never heard of a “dollar-a-year” man.
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