DCHP-3

sessional indemnity

DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

Entry from the DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

This entry may contain outdated or offensive information, terms, and examples.

the money received by a member of parliament or of a legislative assembly in return for his services and in compensation for loss of personal income.

See: indemnity(def. 1)

Quotations

1900
But Canada, having no large leisured class, and being a country of such magnificent distances that the M.P. cannot attend to his business as well as his legislation, is obliged to pay the workers on her political machinery, with the result that politics have come to be looked upon as a profession . . . and the average partisan gets to Ottawa for the sake of his sessional indemnity and what he can make by means of his position.
1950
. . . if membership [in Parliament] is to be a full-time occupation, it is high time that the sessional indemnity be frankly regarded as an annual salary for work performed.
1963
Increases in sessional indemnities and expenses that the Quebec Legislature has just approved put it in a class by itself. The indemnity for a single session is $10,000 plus a tax-free $5,000 expense allowance.