Constituency assistants should be paid at least $30 an hour by the MLAs who hire them, a new report recommends.
A three-person independent commission was tasked by the NWT legislature with looking at the salaries and benefits territorial politicians receive, and related issues.
While the commission recommended minor changes to MLAs’ pay and some entitlements, its report also explores how consistuency assistants are hired and paid.
MLAs usually hire an assistant to help navigate residents’ issues and stay on top of the job’s administrative demands, but only have a set amount of cash to do so. Often, two MLAs will team up to hire one person full-time who works as both MLAs’ consistuency assistant.
Those assistants aren’t employed by the territorial government or the legislature, the commission noted. They are employed directly by the MLA or MLAs involved, and MLAs aren’t necessarily knowledgeable employers.
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“Many MLAs have never hired a staff person before. They are not aware of the various laws and acts they must adhere to,” the commission wrote in its report, though it noted MLAs can ask the legislature for help with contracts and terms of employment.
The report recommends a new minimum pay rate for constituency assistants that “should not be less than $30.00 per hour.”
“MLAs are encouraged to seek support, if they hire a Constituency Assistant, to assist with answering any questions about the hiring process and responsibilities of being an employee or provide clarification regarding this relationship,” the report adds.
Following a recent security incident at a Hay River constituency office – the nature of which is not specified in the report – the commission also recommends all constituency assistants receive health and safety training on working alone.
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If MLAs accept the recommendation, a $1,500 budget would be created for security-related items.
The report, tabled in the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday, contains more than 20 recommendations across 10 topic areas.
Other significant changes proposed include:
- a $50,000 annual cap on constituency office lease agreements (some offices cost tens of thousands of dollars per year more than others – Denny Rodgers’ office, in Inuvik, comes at a $66,000 annual cost);
- a $3,000 increase to the housing allowance for MLAs who must maintain a second home in Yellowknife; and
- an increase to retraining assistance program for departing MLAs, moving it from $1,000 per year of service to $1,500 per year, with a new maximum of $18,000.
The report also recommends making an MLA’s base pay $120,000, which would have been about a $2,300 increase at the time the commission was appointed. According to legislation, since April 2025 MLAs’ salaries have started at $121,716.
