In a surprise move Friday, the House of Commons quickly passed changes to pensions for MPs and senators, bringing the plan more in line with pension plans of ordinary Canadians.
Under the reforms, MPs will eventually be forced to cover 50 per cent of the costs of their pensions, with their annual contributions rising to nearly $39,000 from $11,000 — and they will have to wait longer, until age 65, to collect full benefits.
But Edmonton MP Peter Goldring, a former Conservative caucus member, said the hefty increase in contributions will dramatically reduce take-home pay for MPs who earn $157,731 in base salary, and ultimately make it far more difficult to attract top quality politicians.
“This is just cowardly. This is just appealing for the almighty vote without giving consideration on how is it going to reflect on the quality of your future parliaments,” Goldring said in an interview with Postmedia News.
“It really isn’t fair compensation.”
After taxes and pension contributions, he figures MPs could effectively be taking home around $50,000 a year or less.
Many MPs come from “substantial backgrounds” and leave behind well-paying careers when jumping into politics, he said.
The pension plan, as it currently sits before the changes, provides an “extra edge” that’s needed because many MPs can’t return to their previous careers, he said.
“You’ve got a vacuum here, and when people are considering whether they’re going into politics, they will be considering this,” Goldring added.
“You have to have some type of leveller,” he said, otherwise the only people who will run for federal politics are “college kids or the very wealthy.”
Goldring withdrew from the Conservative caucus last December and sits as an independent, after being charged with failing to provide a breath sample to police. He entered a plea of not guilty in an Edmonton court in April and the case goes to trial in November.
The Conservative government’s decision Friday to carve out MP pension reforms into separate legislation had opposition parties urging the Tories to do the same with more contentious measures in the 443-page budget implementation bill.
The move came after the Conservative government endorsed a request from the Liberals to hive off MP and senator pension reforms into separate legislation from its sweeping and controversial budget implementation bill, which had been introduced Thursday.
The Tories immediately received all-party consent to separate the parliamentary pension reforms into an individual bill. The Conservative-controlled Senate must endorse the changes before they can receive royal assent.
“We of course thought it was very important that we bring MP pensions in line broadly with what we see in the public sector to make sure MPs paid their fair share,” government House leader Peter Van Loan told reporters Friday.
“We had an opportunity here to have that proceed through the House of Commons with unanimous consent and we were pleased to be able to do it.”
The rest of the budget implementation bill will remain in its own legislation, Bill C-45, which will undergo scrutiny in the Commons and at committee before it can be voted on and passed. Proposed changes to public service pensions remain in the main bill and will not be fast-tracked.
The government’s decision to split MP and senator pensions into a separate bill was unforeseen. The Conservatives, until Thursday, said they had no interest in dividing the budget bill.
On Friday, Van Loan said he has not heard of any other parts of the main budget bill that opposition parties would be willing to cut out and instantly pass through the Commons with unanimous consent, but he maintained he’s willing to listen to their requests.
The Prime Minister’s Office said that in quickly passing the MP pension reforms, opposition parties were also agreeing to keep all other sections of the main budget legislation in the original bill.
However, the NDP and Liberals said the government’s willingness to separate pension changes into an individual bill means the Tories can just as easily do the same with contentious reforms to environmental protection and other areas.
The sweeping budget bill amends dozens of federal statutes in a wide range of areas, such as protection of waterways, remuneration of judges, customs rules at borders, aboriginal affairs, and research and development tax credits.
The Tories are proposing to end one of Canada’s oldest laws protecting bodies of water across the country, by replacing the Navigable Waters Protection Act, first introduced in 1882, with a new Navigation Protection Act covering a list of 97 lakes, 62 rivers and the three oceans on Canada’s coasts.
The government says the changes could ease the burden on companies seeking approval on new industrial projects such as oilsands development or mining extraction, but opposition parties insist the reforms will gut federal protection of Canadian waterways and leave lakes and rivers at risk.
The Liberals claimed credit for the quick passage of the pension changes, with Grit finance critic Scott Brison saying: “The NDP were nowhere in sight on this.”
The Conservatives’ co-operation means the opposition will no longer be left in the thorny position of possibly voting against a budget bill that contains parliamentary pension reforms long called for by spending watchdogs and the general public.
“We believe that it sets an example where the Conservatives ought to do that in other areas like the Navigable Waters,” Brison added. “They don’t seem willing to do that but hope springs eternal.”
Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: Jason Fekete
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