The member across the floor points out that the members of the Ontario legislature, in the process of converting from a gold-plated, defined benefit pension plan to a self-funding defined contribution plan, received a certain lump sum payment to be invested into an annuity. He is absolutely right. They invested that money into an annuity and the money that went into that annuity is a fraction of the defined benefits they would have been paid through the unfunded liability. Mike Harris did what was fiscally responsible.
I wish the members of the regional party on my extreme left would follow the example of Mike Harris or Gary Filmon on this issue, or of Ralph Klein who followed the leadership of the reform party in moderating these benefits and putting them on the same level that average Canadians expect and anticipate. Yes, they got an annuity, the annuity being a fraction of the benefits that would have been paid to them under the old status quo ante.
The point that we raise here is one of simple fairness. Why could we not simply have introduced and passed in legislation the recommendations of the Blais Commission. Honest, hardworking Canadians volunteered, such as a former colleague, Ray Speaker, to sit on the Blais Commission, look at parliamentary compensation and determine what would be fair by analyzing the workload and responsibilities of members of parliament and senators and comparing those responsibilities to compensation packages in the private sector.
The commission came up with some very sensible recommendations, first among which was to take the defined benefit plan we have now, the actuarially unsound plan, and convert it into a self-funding, dollar for dollar, standard pension plan, the type of which has been adopted in Ontario and several other provinces. That was the Blais Commission's recommendation.
This government, instead of accepting the recommendations of that hardworking, thoughtful and objective independent commission, decided that it was going to continue with the status quo. Incidentally, that commission also recommended that we eliminate the completely odious practice of allowing MPs to hide a portion of their income and shelter it from taxes. Elected officials, alone amongst Canadians, are allowed, through a special provision in the Income Tax Act, to exempt one-third of their ordinary income from the same taxes that we impose upon Canadians.
I have a private member's bill that would eliminate the so-called tax free expense allowances which, of course, are effectively a proportion of our salary, and make that money fully taxable. This would create full transparency so that Canadian taxpayers could see what they are actually paying their members of parliament.
The Blais Commission made the same recommendation that we eliminate the tax free status proportion of our income and gross it up for full transparency. However, again the government decided it did not want Canadians to see what we are actually being paid. It does not want Canadians to see that the $21,000 tax free allowance is actually worth about 40,000 pre-tax gross dollars. It does not want Canadians to see that so it ignored the recommendations of the Blais Commission on issue after issue.
Why does the government continue to put us in this conflict of interest position? It makes absolutely no sense to me.
I voted against this bill at second reading because it fails to implement the recommendations of the Blais Commission. It fails to live up to the spirit of fairness that has swept the legislatures of this country which have reformed their legislative compensation packages. It also fails to simply respect the basic principle of fairness.
I want to make it absolutely clear, as a former president of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and somebody who has raised the issue of fairness, that I for one have never advocated that parliamentarians or legislators in Canada ought to have no retirement benefits. Quite to the contrary.
I remember appearing before committees in this place in the last parliament as a lay witness and suggesting the kind of pension plan that Canadians would accept, the sort that has been adopted by the various provincial legislatures, a defined contribution, completely actuarially sound pension.
I never suggested as president of that organization that any member of parliament be required to opt out of the pension plan. In fact, we never asked for an opting out provision. I want to make it clear that those who have been fighting for fairness in MP compensation have been fighting for reasonable fairness. They have not been fighting for a double standard where MPs of one party would be set at a disadvantage compared to MPs of another party. We think MPs of all parties should have the same standard as all Canadians, and that is what this debate is about.
I can understand why my colleagues in the fifth party are shrill. After all, they are not only fifth in number of seats but I think they are now fifth in the public opinion polls. They are sad and tired with a retread leader from the 1970s who cannot even figure out whether or not he wants to run in a byelection,
It has been postulated to me by members of the PC Party that one of the reasons their leader will not run for election to this place is that is he is receiving very generous pension plan benefits right now, whilst at the same time receiving from his party a compensation package equivalent to that of the leader of his party in this place. Talk about double dipping.
These shameless advocates of the old status quo have learned absolutely nothing. Their leader will not run, in part because he is getting that very generous pension and a very generous salary from his debt ridden party. Is it not interesting that the party which doubled the national debt, which ran the longest and largest string of deficits in Canadian history but never apologized for it, all the while defending a six to one parliamentary pension plan, should now have for a leader a man who continues to collect that pension plan and a generous salary from a party that is in as much debt as it put the country in?
What a delicious irony. They have learned absolutely nothing. The shrill partisan squawking we hear from that extreme and narrow fringe of Canadian politics will continue. I think that they should do themselves and this place a favour. I would be willing to exempt my principles on the question of euthanasia because I would like to see that party die a dignified death.
What we see before us now is anything but dignified, as the Conservatives continue to apologize for the grandiosity and the pomposity of the regime which they represented and the six to one pension plan which Canadians have said enough about.
I am proud of my colleagues for having taken a stand on this issue, for having forced the moderation of these benefits. I look forward to the day when we sit on the other side and one of the very first pieces of legislation we introduce will be to institute an independent commission, which I fully anticipate will come back with recommendations to create a self-funding, actuarially sound pension plan.