This bill amends the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act to change how certain reimbursement caps are adjusted and to replace Schedule C with a new schedule of indemnities and allowances for members and office-holders. It moves key pay and allowance rules from a static schedule into an updated appendix and establishes a process for annual administrative adjustments to reimbursement maximums.
That matters for payroll and budget officers, Legislative Assembly administration and MLAs themselves: it removes (or reduces) the need for frequent statutory amendments to keep allowances current, fixes baseline dollar amounts for indemnities and supplements, and creates an ongoing indexing rule that will affect future expense payments and fiscal planning.
At a Glance
What It Does
The bill deems that, on April 1 each year, the maximum amounts for member reimbursements set under paragraph 43(i) will be adjusted automatically using the average percentage change in the Canada Consumer Price Index over the previous five calendar years. It also repeals the existing Schedule C and substitutes the Appendix schedule that lists specific indemnities, office-holder supplements, expense allowances and a transition allowance increase.
Who It Affects
Directly affected parties include members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs), office-holders (Premier, ministers, Speaker, committee chairs), the Legislative Assembly’s corporate services and payroll staff, and the territorial finance function responsible for implementing indexed adjustments and funding them.
Why It Matters
Automatic indexing shifts pay-and-allowance adjustments from occasional legislative fixes to an administrative process, changing how the territory budgets for MLA compensation and removing recurring political decisions over routine updates. The new schedule also clarifies many payment categories and ties the northern allowance to external collective-agreement provisions, introducing cross-institutional dependencies for setting certain rates.
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What This Bill Actually Does
The bill replaces an existing statutory provision with a rule that makes certain maximum reimbursement amounts change automatically each year. Instead of Parliament periodically amending figures in statute, the change delegates the arithmetic to an administrative formula: each April the caps move by a multi-year average of consumer-price changes.
That design is intended to reduce the need for frequent legislative amendments and to smooth year-to-year volatility.
Alongside the indexing rule, the bill swaps out Schedule C for a freshly drafted appendix. The new schedule enumerates the compensation items the Assembly pays: a base indemnity for every member, a set of office-holder supplements (Premier, ministers, Speaker and assorted committee chairs and deputies), an expense allowance (including a separate entry for members who do not live within commuting distance) and a northern cost-of-living allowance that is pegged to a provision in a collective agreement.
The schedule also specifies an increase to the transition allowance formula.Practically, the legislation delegates the mechanics of annual adjustments to administrative bodies: someone will calculate the five-year CPI average, apply that percentage on the April 1 date, and adjust the statutory caps accordingly. The Assembly’s corporate services will need to incorporate the new appendix figures into payroll templates, reporting and forecasting.
The linkage of the northern allowance to a collective agreement provision and the use of a Canada-wide CPI are both policy choices that create implementation questions that the Assembly and finance officials will have to resolve without further statutory amendment.
The Five Things You Need to Know
The bill sets the annual base indemnity payable to every member at $117,668 per fiscal year.
Office-holder supplements are specified: Premier $96,991; ministers (other than the Premier) $69,516; Speaker $57,328; Deputy Speaker $8,587.
Committee and caucus supplements are listed: deputy chair of Committee of the Whole $5,154; standing committee chair $7,608 (with the chair of the Standing Committee on Accountability and Oversight at $11,210); caucus chair $3,805; designated committee members receive $2,129 or $4,259 depending on committee load.
The annual allowance for expenses is fixed at $8,786 for a member and at $8,786 for a member whose ordinary residence is not within commuting distance of the capital.
The schedule increases the transition allowance augmentation by $4,259 and links the northern allowance to the amount specified in article 41 of the referenced Collective Agreement (or its equivalent in any renewal).
Section-by-Section Breakdown
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Automatic indexing of maximum reimbursable amounts
This provision repeals the prior text and replaces it with an administrative indexing rule: on April 1 each year the maximum amounts prescribed under paragraph 43(i) are deemed adjusted by the average percentage change in the Canada CPI over the prior five calendar years. Mechanically, the rule removes the need for a formula to be enacted each time numbers are updated. Practically, it requires an official body to calculate and publish the percentage and to apply it to whatever statutory caps paragraph 43(i) governs. The text does not itself create a new regulatory schedule — it changes how the caps move year to year.
New Schedule C: enumerated indemnities and allowances
Section 3 repeals the old Schedule C and substitutes the Appendix schedule with explicit dollar amounts and categories for indemnities, office-holder supplements, expense allowances, the northern allowance and a transition-allowance increase. The replacement moves a number of compensation rules out of narrative statute and into a clearly enumerated schedule, which simplifies reading but fixes baseline figures in statute until they are either indexed or changed by future legislation. Implementation will require payroll updates and revised internal policy guidance that reference the new schedule entries.
Breakdown of schedule categories and references
The Appendix is divided into parts for base indemnity, office-holder indemnities, expense allowances, the northern allowance, and transition-allowance augmentation. It names specific roles and ties some amounts to external instruments (notably the northern allowance to article 41 of a Collective Agreement). Because one entry relies on an agreement that expired in 2021, administrators will need to identify the applicable current rate or the equivalent provision in any renewal when paying members.
Commencement direction for the Schedule substitution
Section 4 sets the entry-into-force timing for the Schedule substitution (this is a short, directive clause specifying when the new Appendix takes legal effect). That timing determines when payroll and budgeting changes must be in place and whether increases will affect the then-current fiscal year.
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Explore this topic in Codify Search →Who Benefits and Who Bears the Cost
Every bill creates winners and losers. Here's who stands to gain and who bears the cost.
Who Benefits
- Members of the Legislative Assembly — receive clarity on base indemnity and categorical supplements, and will see expense caps that adjust automatically rather than waiting for ad hoc legislative updates.
- Office-holders (Premier, ministers, Speaker, committee chairs) — the schedule locks in explicit supplements so holders of these positions know their pay entitlements without separate approval processes.
- Legislative administration and payroll staff — gain a clear, single schedule to implement and (for indexed caps) an administrative rule for annual adjustments that reduces the need to prepare statutory amendment packages.
Who Bears the Cost
- Territorial finance / taxpayers — automatic indexing creates a recurring fiscal obligation that can grow over time and must be budgeted annually, shifting some cost risk from legislators to the public purse.
- Legislative Assembly corporate services — will bear implementation and ongoing administrative costs (calculating the index, updating payroll systems, publishing adjustments, reconciling collective-agreement linkages).
- Departments negotiating collective agreements and union representatives — the northern allowance is tied to external agreement language, complicating bargaining and potentially creating expectations that collective bargaining outcomes will affect MLA payments.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The central dilemma is between depoliticizing compensation through automatic, formulaic updates (which increases predictability and reduces ad hoc legislative tinkering) and preserving fiscal control and local responsiveness (which requires human judgment and discretionary review because national CPI measures and multi-year averages may not match local cost pressures and can lock in rising costs). The bill solves predictability but transfers financial risk and interpretive questions to administrators.
Two sets of implementation tensions stand out. First, the bill relies on a Canada-wide Consumer Price Index and a five-year average to adjust reimbursement caps.
Using the national CPI smooths regional volatility but can under- or over-state cost pressures in the Northwest Territories specifically; using a five-year average reduces year-to-year noise but introduces multi-year lag so adjustments will trail rapid inflation or deflation. Administratively, the statute presumes an official actor will calculate and apply the percentage each April, but it does not identify the specific office or publication process for that calculation, which invites short-term ambiguity about who certifies the adjustment and when it becomes publicly visible.
Second, the replacement Schedule C both clarifies and freezes many amounts in one place while linking the northern allowance to an external collective-agreement provision that, on its face in the Appendix, expired in 2021. That creates questions about which instrument governs the current northern allowance rate and whether future collective-bargaining outcomes will automatically change MLA entitlements.
The bill does not resolve whether the indexing rule applies to every number in the schedule or only to the reimbursement maxima referenced to paragraph 43(i), leaving room for legal interpretation and administrative policy decisions.
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