The front-page story in The Lethbridge Herald Tuesday asked the question — Are MLAs paid OK?
Quoted in the story was former MLA Ray Speaker from Enchant, who told a hearing Premier Allison Redford  salary of $211,000 is actually less than the $264,000 made by the senior civil servant who advises her.
The story went on to mention the salary for Redford’s chief of staff, Stephen Carter, starts at $197,000, and can escalate almost $70,000 from there.
Speaker said the top civil servant in each department makes salaries that exceed $250,000. No question, that dwarfs the $170,000-plus a year for a cabinet minister.
So, should we talk about pay raises for MLAs?
We talked about it just after Premier Ed Stelmach was elected, when Stelmach and his cabinet voted themselves 30-per-cent pay raises.
Certainly, there is a problem here, but it is not with MLA salaries.
The Herald story also points out MLAs in Alberta make an average of $125,000 a year, once special allowances, committee stipends and RRSP contributions kick in. That makes Alberta’s MLA salaries the highest among provinces.
Add to that the fact many MLAs who are not running to re-election are up for huge transition allowance payments, and it appears MLAs are compensated just fine (Stelmach will likely fare well in retirement with his estimated $1 million payment, so too will Ken Kowalski and his $1.3 million).
The problem then logically would shift to the salaries of civil servants. That is where the government should be examining the pay scale.
Speaker added a rule should be in place where elected officials that govern Alberta should  have salaries that are at least comparable to those they manage. That is fair enough.
However, exorbitant civil-servant salaries need to be tackled first, as Speaker is right when he suggests Albertans will not buy any more increases to MLA salaries.
As municipalities struggle across Alberta to keep their heads above water with mounting infrastructure issues, money could certainly be spent in other areas.
There is no doubt MLAs have difficult jobs, especially MLAs who live in southern Alberta. As Speaker indicated, politicians here, who live so far from Edmonton, have grueling travel schedules on top of their work here at home.
Boosting MLA pay is not the answer. Bringing other salaries back into the realm of fiscal reality should be the focus.