OTTAWA, ON: The next phase of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation’s (CTF) campaign to fix MPs pensions took flight on Monday, literally. As MPs returned to Ottawa for the fall session they were greeted with a giant banner being towed behind an airplane around Parliament reading: Back to Work MPs. Fix Your Pensions!
Hundreds of supporters of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) from coast-to-coast sent in donations over the past six weeks to hire a plane and make the banner, underlining taxpayers’ unhappiness with the platinum-plated MP pension plan.
“It’s outrageous that an MP can collect a platinum-plated pension as young as age 55, after only six years on the job,” said CTF Federal Director Gregory Thomas. “Our supporters wanted to remind MPs that they haven’t forgotten about their sky-high pensions, or their promise to fix them.”
The government promised action in the budget last spring to bring MP pensions into line, but when it tabled its massive 452-page omnibus budget bill, C-38, the legislation contained not a single word on MP pension reform.
The government now says MP pension legislation will be tabled in the fall session of Parliament.
“MPs are charging Canadians 10.4 per cent interest on the money in their pension plan,” said Thomas. “Taxpayers paid $23 million of interest into the MP pension plan on June 30th, and we will pay another $23 million on September 30th, if something isn’t done. By next year the Parliamentary pension plan will have over $1 billion dollars, set aside to benefit fewer than 1,000 people.”
“This scheme has resulted in $24 of taxpayer cash going into the parliamentary pension plan for every $1 an MP contributes,” continued Thomas. “If MPs think ‘fixing’ the plan means moving that down to $18 or $12, they’re going to continue to get an earful from angry taxpayers.”
Earlier in the summer, the CTF launched billboards across the country highlighting the $24 to $1 contribution ratio.
The CTF then followed up that campaign by launching a 15-second digital ad that was played 3.6 million times in the washrooms of bars, restaurants and fitness centres across Toronto.
A pdf version of the banner that few behind the airplane today can be downloaded HERE.
To read the Report on the Administration of the Members of Parliament Retiring Allowances Act for the Fiscal Year Ended March 31, 2011, click HERE.
To read the CTF’s MP pension report from January 2012 including estimated pension calculations for all sitting MPs click HERE
Gregory Thomas, Ontario Director
