Of course, the Harper regime is being more than a little hypocritical when it launches an attack on public-sector pensions while continuing to collect its own gold-plated pensions, currently at a cost of around $50 million per year. And Stephen I’s about-face on pensions — he once claimed that every MP who refused to opt out of the pension should be kicked out of the party, but now pays into one himself — is one of the most scandalous episodes in the history of Conservative corruption.
But with all that said, I think we have to be very careful how we word our criticism here. Would you really be happier seeing your own pension (if you’re fortunate enough to have one) cut to the bone if you knew that MPs, most of whom have other sources of income or even other pensions anyways, were making the same cuts? And, more to the point, would government really be more democratic if we paid our MPs less money?
Maybe. But there are two points to keep in mind here. First, the MP pension scheme doesn’t actually cost us all that much money. According to John Ivison’s latest broadside against Parliamentary pensions, the scheme pays out around $50 million per year. That amounts to less than $1.50 per Canadian. Let’s suppose we slashed MP pensions by half. That would bring the cost down to 75 cents. You can take your personal savings and go buy an extra juice box.
Second, we should be asking ourselves what MPs should be paid. CEOs of large multinational companies get anywhere from tens of millions to hundreds of millions of dollars per year, running corporations a fraction of the size of the Canadian economy. Now, I’m not saying that Stephen I deserves a $100 million a year salary, let alone anyone else.
But, every Member of Parliament is charged with passing laws which apply to all Canadians, representing their particular riding at the national level, and either overseeing government (if they are in Cabinet) or holding government accountable to the people (if they are not). Now, how much should someone with those responsibilities be paid? Pierre Karl Peladeau, the Quebecor CEO who oversees the odious Sun Media enterprise, only performs the last of those four duties, and not very well at that. He gets $5 million per year.
And there’s another equally serious point, which I’ve left to last only because it sounds vaguely paranoid. When it comes to paying people in positions of high public trust, we’re not just paying what we think is reasonable — we’re paying enough, and keeping them under a tight enough legal leash, that they’re not sorely tempted to accept additional pay from somebody else. As in, bribes.
As I say, that sounds slightly paranoid. But then again, the man who is currently our Prime Minister once tried to bribe a terminally ill MP with a $1 million life insurance policy in exchange for his cooperation on a single vote. If we don’t pay our MPs generously, someone else will.
Original Article
Source: sixth Estate
But with all that said, I think we have to be very careful how we word our criticism here. Would you really be happier seeing your own pension (if you’re fortunate enough to have one) cut to the bone if you knew that MPs, most of whom have other sources of income or even other pensions anyways, were making the same cuts? And, more to the point, would government really be more democratic if we paid our MPs less money?
Maybe. But there are two points to keep in mind here. First, the MP pension scheme doesn’t actually cost us all that much money. According to John Ivison’s latest broadside against Parliamentary pensions, the scheme pays out around $50 million per year. That amounts to less than $1.50 per Canadian. Let’s suppose we slashed MP pensions by half. That would bring the cost down to 75 cents. You can take your personal savings and go buy an extra juice box.
Second, we should be asking ourselves what MPs should be paid. CEOs of large multinational companies get anywhere from tens of millions to hundreds of millions of dollars per year, running corporations a fraction of the size of the Canadian economy. Now, I’m not saying that Stephen I deserves a $100 million a year salary, let alone anyone else.
But, every Member of Parliament is charged with passing laws which apply to all Canadians, representing their particular riding at the national level, and either overseeing government (if they are in Cabinet) or holding government accountable to the people (if they are not). Now, how much should someone with those responsibilities be paid? Pierre Karl Peladeau, the Quebecor CEO who oversees the odious Sun Media enterprise, only performs the last of those four duties, and not very well at that. He gets $5 million per year.
And there’s another equally serious point, which I’ve left to last only because it sounds vaguely paranoid. When it comes to paying people in positions of high public trust, we’re not just paying what we think is reasonable — we’re paying enough, and keeping them under a tight enough legal leash, that they’re not sorely tempted to accept additional pay from somebody else. As in, bribes.
As I say, that sounds slightly paranoid. But then again, the man who is currently our Prime Minister once tried to bribe a terminally ill MP with a $1 million life insurance policy in exchange for his cooperation on a single vote. If we don’t pay our MPs generously, someone else will.
Original Article
Source: sixth Estate
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