Archive for the ‘Ontario PC Party’ Category

Interim NDP Leader  Nycole Turmel told party faithful Wednesday that Prime Minister Stephen Harper was spending too much time looking to slash MP pensions.

“Stephen Harper has his priorities wrong. He thinks the most pressing issue is MP pensions. Not the retirement security of millions of Canadians. You know, maybe it’s because I’m a long, long way from having an MP pension. Yes. But I came here to fight for better pensions for all Canadians.”

As a former public servant and union leader , she undoubtedly has access to a decent pension, but is indeed over five years from getting an MP pension -  and there is no doubt millions of Canadians workers (roughly 12 million according to Statistic Canada) have no workplace pension.

Recent  C.D. Howe reports also warn about funding shortfall in public sector pensions – so not everything is rosy on that end either.

But despite Turmel’s speech,  the NDP party has been hesitantly open to reforming MP pensions, calling on an independent panel or outside body to review the current pension plan enjoyed by parliamentarians.

Last week, NDP MP Joe Comartin cautioned, however, that reforming political pensions may be popular with the taxpayer but didn’t always save them much cash off the bat.

That was one of the complaints in 1993, when Alberta premier Ralph Klein phased out MLA pensions in that province.  (In 2001, Klein turned around and implemented severance packages  – 1 year’s pay for every four years service – criticized by low tax advocates as far too generous)

Comartin referred to pricey compensation packages paid out under  former Ontario premier Mike Harris when he reformed MPP pensions in 1996. All told the ‘present value’ compensation packages ended up costing $109 million.

Here’s what was dug up from the database with the help of the Toronto Sun’s Christina Blizzard. 

Here’s one of her columns from that time period below.

Last week was strange and, in the long run, one of the most damaging seven-day stretches the 2 1/2-year-old Tory government has endured.

It isn’t so much the labor legislation flip-flop or the showdown with teachers that has the potential to inflict deep and enduring scars. In the end, it may be the self-inflicted wounds that will cause the most pain for the Tories.

First, there was the story of the great MPP pension buyout bonanza. The Sun’s Jeff Harder reported that 300 MPPs, past and present, were handed hundreds of thousands of dollars in settlements in a $109-million pension benefits buyout. Premier Mike Harris and Finance Minister Ernie Eves received $850,000 and about $800,000 respectively and all MPPs elected before 1982, past and present, have been handsomely paid off in this all-party feeding frenzy.

Sure, if you’ve paid into a pension plan you certainly should be entitled to receive the benefits. But these figures are ludicrous. Handing politicians cheques, some well in excess of half a million dollars at a time when we are slashing Wheel Trans subsidies and welfare payments is obscene.

The rest of us have just received the unwelcome news that we’ll have to fork out over $1,000 a year more to pull the Canada Pension Plan back from the edge of insolvency. Most young people don’t believe they’ll ever see anything back from CPP anyway, and are furiously saving for their retirement. Why can’t politicians do likewise?

What’s most distressing, however, is that Harris promised his would be a different type of government. It would be open and accountable and do away with gold-plated pensions.

Watching politicians feather their own nests is gross at the best of times. But when hospitals are being closed, when parents are fearful for their kids’ education, when university students are facing tuition hikes, it is revolting.