Earlier this month, provincial Liberal legislators accepted the independent commission to review MLA compensation's controversial recommendations. But have cabinet ministers Rich Neufeld and Rick Thorpe always been in favour of a generous pay and pension package for elected representatives? After all, before the Liberals won government, Ministers Neufeld and Thorpe made written submission to the 1997 citizens' panel on MLA remuneration. But the clerk of the committees won't release those submissions, "holding them in confidence." Minister Thorpe is refusing to answer questions about the issue. And, in an interview today with Public Eye, Minister Neufeld, he couldn't say what advice he gave to the panel. "I don't know. Go back and read it. I don't have it. And I don't know what it was. I can't remember back to 1997."