“The legislation giving Members of Parliament an annual pay increase was passed in 2005, well before I was a Member of Parliament. I have never voted for a pay raise.

It is up to the government to bring forward legislation to make changes to the annual increase should they do so when the House of Commons resumes sitting again.

Following the global economic downturn in 2008, it was the previous Conservative government that put in place an MP pay freeze that lasted for three years.

While individual Members of Parliament cannot stop the pay raise from going forward, we can decide what to do with the money we receive.

I know people throughout Mission-Matsqui-Fraser Canyon are hurting right now which is why I am donating any increase I receive to the Food Bank.”