To the editor:
Ron Cannan provided his MP’s Report in your Feb 21 Capital News (Protecting Benefit for Seniors for our Future Generations), and I have to wonder if Prime Minister Harper has asked his “troops” to prepare us for the soon to be delivered federal budget.
Much like the B.C. Liberals and the HST debacle, the federal Conservatives are in some trouble thanks to:
• their boss telling European bankers about their Canadian Pension plans before having the decency to tell us
• the recent Canadian Taxpayers Association release about the level of pensions being collected by M.P.s just like Mr. Cannan, thanks to us, the Canadian workers and taxpayers
• and now of course there is some dispute over whether or not there is any need to change anything in the existing Canadian Pension Benefits package.
Mr. Cannan does make some interesting points—the declining number of Canadians who support the Pension Fund, the fact that we are living longer and therefore the growing reliance on the Pension Fund.
While I might be agreeable to some changes in the formulas used to fund the future pension liability, I would first and most definitely like to see Mr. Cannan and the rest of our elected officials stop taking advantage of the Canadian taxpayer with their gold-plated pension plan.
I understand that for every single dollar our MPs put into their pension plan, we, the Canadian taxpayer, add $23—that to me is unconscionable.
Mr. Cannan suggests “they” are reviewing their pensions and benefits. Of course, that review is being held behind closed doors, so we the people funding their obscene benefits package will never know what’s discussed, how much of a laugh they’ve had, and what has been done because I have little doubt that we will ever see the results.
Mr. Cannan also provided some figures re the Old Age Security and I have to wonder how many pensioners receive (or exceed) the $69,652 level after which OAS is gradually reduced—oh wait, yes, those would be retired Members of Parliament.
Malcolm Roberts,
Kelowna
