"Proud of my "#pcaa" team for leading by example: PCs will freeze MLA pay and housing allowances today." #BitumenBubble" "#ableg"," Redford tweeted after the Member Services Committee voted to keep pay at current levels.

Redford thanked official Opposition Leader Danielle Smith for voting in favour of the pay freeze.

"It's good to work together to do the right thing," Redford tweeted.

Smith said she supports the pay freeze, but...

"If you're actually going to have a pay freeze be meaningful, you have to freeze pay before the raise," Smith said.

"Instead, they increased it by 8% in December and now they've announced a pay freeze. We wanted to go one step further and have the pay freeze stay in effect until the consolidated budget is back in balance and the government voted that down, which leads us to believe that there's going to be no real effort to balance the budget. We're going to be seeing deficits for a long time under this premier."

Also Thursday, the ABPremierComms Twitter account managed by Redford staffer Mike Jenkinson tweeted: "Even @electdanielle agrees that MLAs took a significant pay cut last year."

The tweet linked to a grainy black-and-red meme picture of Smith with the caption, "Guess who said MLAs took a 'significant pay cut'? It quoted Smith as saying: 'We do recognize the sacrifice that government members are making'."

Smith said her comment was in reference to the difference between committee cash average Tory MLAs used to snag before the 2012 no-meet committee scandal launched a rejigged pay scheme, compared to the smaller amounts opposition MLAs were paid. Additionally, those elected before April 2012 will get to keep their golden handshake "transition" bonuses when they leave office, which can amount to hundreds of thousands or even a million dollars depending on length of service.

"I think they don't understand sarcasm," Smith said.