Good morning to everyone present here today.
Let me first introduce myself by saying my name is Roddie O'Handley and I'm from Halifax, Nova Scotia. Thank you for having me here to speak on this important bill, Bill C-201.
I was asked to speak on Bill C-201 because I have just experienced the ramifications of having my personal RCMP disability pension reduced. Let me tell you how I experienced that and how it directly resulted in a clawback to me.
I retired from the RCMP with a disability pension. As a result of the disability pension, I was entitled to 75% of my best five years of wages. When I retired, I had 32 years and 11 days of service. This meant I received 64% from my RCMP pension, provided by Morneau Sobeco. The other 11% was made up by the Great-West Life Assurance Company.
The RCMP's 64% gave me a total of $3,610.80 per month. Great-West Life paid me 11%, which was $1,036.42 per month. This gave me a total income, when I retired, of $4,647.22 per month. That's what I got.
After two years, Great-West Life sent me a letter advising me that I was no longer eligible to receive disability benefits from them. This reduced my pay by 11%, or $1,036.42--although there was no change to my medical profile. That stayed the same.
After that, I hired a pension advocate to try to get my Great-West Life pension back. The pension advocate advised me to apply for a Canada disability pension. On his advice, I applied for a Canada disability pension and I was successful in getting it.
As a result of being successful in obtaining a Canada disability pension, I informed the RCMP pension providers that I had received a Canada disability pension. They, in turn, sent me a letter on October 27, 2009, stating that because I was successful in obtaining a Canada disability pension, my RCMP pension would be reduced by $719.28, a considerable loss to me.
Now let's look at the actual dollar amounts I received after clawbacks and how much I have actually received in real money. Here is the breakdown from start to finish.
When I retired, I got $3,610.80, or 64%, from the RCMP. I got $1,036.42, or 11%, from Great-West Life. As I said before, that was a total of $4,647.22 per month. After two years, I lost the $1,036.42, the Great-West Life benefits, leaving me with $3,610.80 from my RCMP pension. Canada disability gave me $1,104.26. The RCMP clawed back $719.28. Out of that money, I gained $384.98 per month.
Canada disability also gave me a retroactive cheque in the amount of $16,405.26. The RCMP is taking $11,403.24. That leaves me with $5,002.02, on which I have to pay income tax.
The RCMP pension plan shouldn't have the right to take any of the money that was awarded to me from the Canada disability pension, because I paid into an RCMP pension plan to pay me a pension of 2% per year for each year I worked. I worked 32 years in the RCMP; therefore, I'm entitled to receive 64% of my best five years' salary when I retire. They shouldn't be allowed to reduce that because I received the Canada disability pension. In fact, because I retired from the RCMP with a disability pension, I'm entitled to 75% of my wages. When the RCMP reduced my pension by $719.28, that gave me less than the 75% I'm entitled to.
They didn't reduce the pension when I got it from Great-West Life, meaning when I got the pension from Great-West Life I was allowed to get the combination of the two. But because of the regulations, when I got it from Canada disability, the RCMP clawed back $719.
To me, this is the same as someone taking something out of my pocket. Why? Because I paid into the pension plan to pay me 2% per year for every year I worked for the RCMP. I worked for 32 years, therefore I'm entitled to 64% of my wages, regardless of what other source of income I may have.
I will leave you with this final thought: you have the power to treat all pensioners as equals, so please do so.
Thank you.