'Gold-plated goodbyes' for departing MLAs
Last Updated: Thursday, May 14, 2009 | 7:39 AM PT
CBC News
They may have lost their seats in Tuesday's B.C. election, but defeated MLAs are still walking away as winners, according to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
The 17 MLAs who either were defeated or did not stand for re-election will share close to $9 million in pensions, benefits and severance, the government watchdog calculates.
CTF spokeswoman Maureen Bader called "the gold-plated goodbyes" far too rich.
"The MLA who quits or is fired essentially will stay on payroll for up to 15 months," Bader said. "Nobody in the private sector can get 15 months of severance payouts — including benefits — if they've only worked for four years.
"The issue is that what these MLAs have given themselves [are] personal benefits far in excess of those available to the people who are paying the bills," Bader said.
Pensions should be based on contributions or achievements, Bader said, not merely on the length of time served.
Bader noted that that an MLA such as Jenn McGinn — who served for less than seven months after winning a byelection in Vancouver Fairview — is eligible for more than $50,000 in benefits.
Bader says the MLA pension plan doesn't take into account that many of those defeated or choosing not to stand for re-election still have many years left to be in the workforce.
The CTF would like to see the plan reviewed, to be more reflective of the types of pension plans to which the average British Columbian has access, Bader said.
As it stands, Bader said, MLAs and many public-sector employees "get a very nice, generous pension benefit, based on the number of years that they've worked, as opposed to what they have contributed to the pension [plan]. For every dollar that an MLA gets out of it, the taxpayer will have given $2.40."
