The increase of about $25,000 annually does not sit well with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. “In any industry I've ever worked in, you don't get a pay raise unless you're doing your job correctly and you're doing your job right," Devin Drover, the federation's Atlantic director, told CBC Radio Thursday, according to a CBC news report. "A pay [raise] of this size would make them the highest paid in Atlantic Canada, when the average income is only about $48,000 here in Newfoundland and Labrador. It is irresponsible at a time when the province is running deficits after deficits, and taxes are some of the highest in the country." A previous report noted that the City of Winnipeg would have to spend more than $3 million more per year if it offered city workers a wage rate that some advocates consider a living wage.
