pigs at the trough | General financial discussion | Discussion forum

kilarney said:

will this ever change? citizens get access to taxpayer money and as usual make themselves rich at our expense. This can be said about many groups. Anyone who isnt competing in a private business model seems to hit the jackpot..... We are going broke people!!!

39 MPs elected in 2006 qualify for $30.9 million lifetime payout on January 23, 2012
Taxpayers contribute $248,668 per year for each MPs pension, while MPs contribute as little as $10,990 per year.

The CTF has discovered that taxpayers contribute $23.30 for every $1 contributed by the MP.

Thirty-nine MPs will become eligible for the MP pension plan on January 23, 2012 after six years of service. They will be eligible for a collective $1,927,000 in annual pensions in 2015, adding up to $29.1 million by age 80.

Even during the market meltdown of 2008—when the Canada Pension Plan lost 18.6 per cent of its value, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan lost 18 per cent, the Quebec Pension Plan lost 25 per cent and the S&P/TSX total return index lost 33 per cent—the MP pension plan returned 10.4 per cent, just as it has every other year,” continued Thomas. “I’d bet there’s a few million Canadians who would love to see a government-guaranteed 10.4 per cent annual return on their RRSPs.”

This taxpayer-funded “interest” results in taxpayers contributing $248,668 each year to each MP’s pension fund, while backbench MPs can contribute as little as $10,990 per year. The base salary for an MP is $157,000.

The government’s chief actuary said in 2010 that the interest rate MPs are paying themselves crazy, recommending it be cut by half. The actuary found the plan’s excess, or surplus, had climbed to $175 million in 2010.

average Canadians, would all love to get a pension at age 55 after only six years of service,” said Thomas. “We’re putting more into MP’s pension plans than we are paying them each year, and they only contribute $10,990 of that to this gold-plated pension scheme. It’s a national disgrace.”

Better yet those MP's wont pass a bill to protect private pensions from a company going under and to make the pension funds to be topped up on a first priority basis.