I read with incredulity Gordon Cooke’s Nov. 27 article on doing away with pensions as a solution to our dismal financial state here in Newfoundland and Labrador (Democracy Cookbook: “We need to discuss the fairness of public-sector pensions”).
His thoughts would be hilarious if they weren’t coming from someone who is responsible for teaching our youth at our highest place of learning. If this is the drivel that he is implanting in the minds of our youth, then we are about to enter into a world that is in worse shape than the one we are in currently.
For Cooke’s information, people who are in receipt of a government pension paid into their pension plans for 30 or so years and, in return, the government contracted to pay them a pension when they met the qualifying age and experience criteria. Surely he must accept that government cannot now have a change of heart and cancel its contractual obligations. If that were so we would have long since cancelled our contractual obligations under Churchill Falls. The courts, I think, would see Cooke’s view in a more realistic light.
I think we should treat government pension plans as a model that all employers should work toward. But Cooke seems to suggest that we begin a race to the bottom by abolishing all pensions.
Can you imagine what a disaster this would be? Seniors would have no means of sustenance, no means of feeding themselves, no means of housing themselves, etc. Not only that, but the general economy would be deprived of the money that is now spent by pensioners on groceries, clothing, restaurant meals, services, etc., thus putting a good many non-pensioners out of a livelihood and depressing our financial state even more than it currently is.
If this is the best Cooke can come up with, I have a counter suggestion: why doesn’t government abolish Cooke’s position, and save the revenue paid to him as an academic, and spare us from his unrealistic views.
Winston Fiander
St. Philip’s
