Jack Danylchuk
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Aug 15/05) - Cabinet ministers and members of the legislative assembly are at the bottom of the public service pay heap in the Northwest Territories.

Senior bureaucrats and judges of the territorial and supreme courts can receive as much as $100,000 a year more than top politicians.

A recent settlement bumped the top pay for a deputy minister to $191,830 a year and gives them a three per cent raise every year for the next four years.

The 2003 judicial compensation and benefits commission set the pay for provincial and superior court chief justices at $263,000 a year.

Judges of the territorial court argued for parity with Northwest Territories Supreme Court justices, but a judicial remuneration commission chaired by John Simpson rejected the idea.

As of March 2005, territorial court judges received salary and pension benefits of $197,813.95, an increase of eight per cent. The salary for the chief judge was set at $211,327.90.

The commission noted that the government made "no specific opposition to the judges being the highest paid territorial/provincial court judges in the country."

Premier Joe Handley, the highest paid territorial government politician, receives $154,000 in salary and benefits. Cabinet ministers earn around $126,000 and regular MLAs $90,000.

In addition to base salaries, MLAs receive capital living allowances of up to $9,800; a Northern living allowance of $11,000 and another $30,000 housing allowance for MLAs from outside Yellowknife.