The Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act requires that salaries and expenses charged to the legislative assembly be published each year.

The Report on the Payment of Indemnities, Allowances and Expenses, however, does not include expenses charged to other organizations within the GNWT.

For example, all cabinet ministers from constituencies outside Yellowknife who keep a residence in the capital can claim up to $35,000 each year for household expenses.

That expense is not included in the report because it's billed to the Department of the Executive.

Neither are costs to the government for health and dental plan benefits, group life insurance or the cost of constituency assistants.

"(The report) is based on what's in the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act," noted Myles Moreside, director of finance and administration for the legislative assembly.

Moreside said pension payments made on behalf of members are also not included in the legislative assembly report.

Whether in other communities in their constituency or in the capital, members are eligible to claim the costs of accommodation, meals and travel.

Last year the assembly rejected a 2.1 per cent cost-of-living increase slated for travel and living expenses and then cut MLAs' basic pay by seven per cent and froze it for four years.

But basic pay accounts for less than half of the cost of MLAs.

For example, Mackenzie Delta representative David Krutko's basic MLA pay and constituency pay accounts for only $55,306 of the $153,016 in expenses and pay he claimed in 1996-97.

Krutko, third-highest earner and spender of all MLAs, supplemented his income with a total of $10,931 in committee pay. He claimed $18,456 in living expenses for attending the same meetings.

A rookie MLA, Krutko chairs the resource management and development committee, is a member of the government operations committee and an alternate on the infrastructure and the rules and procedures committees.

At the bottom end of the expense ladder are Yellowknife MLAs.

Because the capital is their home constituency, the four Yellowknife members' travel and living expenses are lower than those who must fly in from out of town and stay at a hotel while here.

As a result, Yellowknife South's Seamus Henry checks in as the thriftiest MLA, with salary and expenses of just $86,234.

He and Yellowknife Centre's Jake Ootes were the only two MLAs to check in with expenses and income totalling less than $100,000.

Vacation pay pushed speaker Sam Gargan to top of MLA heap

Speaker Sam Gargan made more money than any other MLA, including the premier, last year. His combined salary and expenses totalled $178,215.

Gargan earned the same basic pay as any cabinet minister -- $100,691. On top of that he collected a Northern allowance worth $2,305.

The figure that pushed Gargan to the top income of $110,238 was $7,242 in lieu of vacation time he had not taken during the year. MLAs are eligible to carry over or collect cash for unused vacation time.

As speaker, Gargan is chairman of the management services board, which administers the operation of the legislature.

According to his executive assistant, Gargan sits on no other committees.