Who can forget that moment in the 2006 federal election campaign when Conservative leader Stephen Harper looked right into the TV cameras and vowed his party would “never” tax income trusts.
“… a new Conservative government will never let this happen,” he vowed.
Nine months later Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, who campaigned hard on that same philosophy, broke that promise and announced a tax on income trusts that led to the immediate loss of about $35 billion in the life savings of Canadians.
Why bring this up now?
Because the Harper-and-Flaherty show is playing again and that historical note goes to the heart of whether Canadians can trust their words.
In a speech last week in Switzerland (and why is he making these announcements halfway around the world instead of at home?) Harper said his government will make changes to the Canada Pension Plan. It now seems certain his plan is to raise the qualifying age for Old Age Security from 65 to 67.
But hold it. Just this week Flaherty, while confirming the government is looking at reforming retirement income programs, said — speaking from Italy — it’s not something that’s coming soon. It’s long-term, he says and won’t be included in the upcoming budget.
Well, we’ll just have to wait and see about that. History provides plenty of examples of politicians saying one thing and then doing another.
Whether you trust Harper and Flaherty or not, the bigger question is why are they even discussing changes to OAS or the CPP?
The cost of OAS is estimated to triple to about $108 billion by 2030 but that would still only represent 3.1 per cent of the anticipated size of the economy in that year.
That Harper and Flaherty are even talking about changes has to scare a lot of seniors living off the CPP and OAS. A report prepared in 2009 for the government’s human resources department stated that without OAS or the Guaranteed Income Supplement, more than one third of women and more than a quarter of men in their 60s would fall below the poverty line. And in most cases, that’s after they’ve worked for 45 years or more.
It seems the Conservatives can’t help themselves when it comes to looking after their rich friends at the expense of average Canadians. They should leave the OAS alone for those who need it and, as has been suggested a number of times, tax back all benefits from all 65-plus seniors who are still earning $70,000 or more, like former MPs, for example.
Service Canada says the average pension administered by CPP is about $6,000. MPs draw a gold-plated pension after just six years in office. The 113 MPs who lost their seats in the last election earned $4.9 million in pension payments that year alone, 18 of them walking away with pensions of more than $100,000.
Typical is former Reformer turned Conservative MP Chuck Strahl, who spent just 18 years in politics and gets a pension of $119,320 every year. The vast majority of Canadians will never earn that in a year no matter how many hours they actually work. Former Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe lost the last election and has an annual pension of $140,765 … for a man who wanted to break up Canada.
If Harper wants to reform anything he should begin right in his own yard, with the luxurious MP pension plan, and leave the average, hard-working Canadian alone.
