In The Weekend Telegram there was an informative letter from Bernard Kenny (“Are members of Parliament worth the cash?” in which he highlighted the ridiculous pensions that MPs of all parties have given themselves.
What’s really amazing is the indifference shown by voters to this situation (or perhaps lack of action on their part is a better description).
Our provincial MHAs are no better.
They have taken advantage of thier position to ensure that they are treated well above the community norm. For all their talk about the widening gap between rich and poor, they have ensured that they firmly are on the rich side.
As an example, NDP Leader Lorraine Michael got her first job as an MHA in 2006. If she were to retire today, she would get a pension of $33,374 per year for life.
If she was working in the real world since 2006, she would have to had put $660,000 in the bank at five per cent to match her pension amount.
That means putting $132,000 in the bank per year while getting a salary of $95,357. Does this sound fair to you? To be fair, she does put $8,500 per year in the MHAs’ pension fund. Rest assured all MHAs use this plan, not just Ms. Michael.
MHAs deserve a good salary (even if it’s only a part-time job for some) and perhaps a good severance package, but taxpayers should not be burdened for life because someone was a politician for five years. This situation will only change if taxpayers complain, not to each other, but directly to their political representatives.
Please do so.
Don Norman
St. John’s
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Ah, I missed a category! Delusional BSer. Huzzah!