New Omnibus Bill a pig in a pension poke.
by Geoffrey Stevens
Everyone knows that the pensions for members of Parliament are far too rich.
MPs can draw their pensions too soon (at age 55), after too few years of parliamentary service (just six), and they receive too much money (up to 75 per cent of salary, with more if they served as a cabinet minister or committee chair). And they contribute far too little to their pension fund. The C.D. Howe Institute reported last year that taxpayers contribute $6 for every $1 put in by MPs; this year, the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation put the disparity at $24 to $1.
We’ll let the actuaries argue over the numbers. The point is, parliamentary pensions are not sustainable by any realistic standard. No private-sector employer would contemplate such lavishness.
Of course, there are reasons for the golden pensions, including interrupted careers in the private sector (MPs often cannot return to jobs they held before Ottawa) and lack of job security in elected office (figuratively, at least, MPs exist just one vote away from the breadline). To those reasons, add the big one: MPs determine their own pension entitlements: how much they will get and when they will start collecting it.
Even MPs know they cannot defend their rich pensions in an era of economic hardship, when employers are squeezing their workers on wages and benefits, when governments are insisting employees accept freezes, when citizens are being asked to pay more for fewer services at all levels.
The Harper government insists on planting pension reform in another omnibus “budget implementation” bill, similar to C-38.
The Harper government agrees. That’s why it is proposing to reform MPs’ pensions as a matter of legislative priority. And that’s why Marc Garneau, speaking for the Liberals, made the Conservatives an offer they should not have been able to refuse last week. If the government would present its pension reforms in a separate bill, the opposition would fast-track it — turn it into law with a minimum of debate, probably with unanimous consent.
That was too good to be true. The Harper government doesn’t mind doing the right thing, provided it can use the opportunity to stick its elbow in the eye of its opponents while it is at it. So it insists on planting pension reform in another omnibus “budget implementation” bill, similar to C-38, to the 425-page monster that finally cleared the Commons last June following an angry all-night debate.
MPs are still trying to figure out what they actually did when they approved C-38; some of it was good, and some decidedly not good (especially the weakening of environmental protection).
Indications are the new bill, which may be introduced as early as this week, will be another “dumpster” bill, as lengthy as C-38 and, like it, crammed with measures that have little or nothing to do with the federal budget.
The government has not yet revealed what, aside from pension reform, will be in the new omnibus, but from what ministers have said, it appears there will be provisions to sell off certain (unspecified) government assets, to shift the focus of the National Research Council from pure research to service to industry, to give the police new powers, and to tighten Canada’s immigration laws.
With a majority government in control, MPs will not be able to split the bill into manageable chunks. They will have to vote for the whole dumpster or reject it entirely. If MPs want to rein in their own pensions, they will have to agree to change the NRC, enhance police powers, sell off government property, and who knows what else.
Harper is trying to goad the opposition parties into voting against the bill so that he can claim his Conservatives, and they alone, are prepared to cut the fat out of parliamentary pensions. They will be present themselves as the frugal stewards of the public purse, setting an example for the nation, while opposition members are self-serving spendthrifts who care not for restraint.
This childish, cynical game is what passes for leadership in Ottawa these days.
About Geoffrey Stevens
Cambridge resident Geoffrey Stevens, an author and former Ottawa columnist and managing editor of the Globe and Mail, teaches political science at Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Guelph. He welcomes comments at the address below. This article appeared in the Waterloo Region Record and the Guelph Mercury.
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