B.C.’s retiring MLAs to hit pension jackpot thanks to taxpayers’ generosity
By Michael Smyth, The Province
This Tuesday not only marks the official start of the election campaign, it’s also the day when retiring MLAs hit a pension jackpot of nearly a million bucks apiece.
The potential lifetime pension payout for 21 retiring MLAs is a whopping $20.8 million, according to new calculations from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
That number will only grow on May 14, when several incumbent MLAs (mainly Liberals) are expected to be defeated.
Many of those “losers” will be eligible for the taxpayer-financed parting gift if they served at least six years in office, the minimum for admission to B.C.’s gold-plated pension party.
“The numbers are astonishing,” said the federation’s Jordan Bateman, noting the defined-benefit pension payouts are guaranteed for life, fully indexed to inflation and financed by taxpayers on a 4-to-1 basis.
Yes, that’s $4 contributed by taxpayers for every $1 contributed by MLAs to the plan. Retired MLAs are eligible for a full pension at age 65, a reduced pension at age 60 and, if an MLA dies, a surviving spouse can still collect 60-per-cent of the payments.
“I don’t like to pick on Bill Barisoff, but he’ll get more than $90,000 a year, kicking up every year at the rate of inflation,” Bateman said of the retiring Liberal MLA from Penticton, currently the speaker of the legislature.
“Compare that to the average household income in his riding — just $53,000. People shouldn’t go into politics to get rich.”
Barisoff, who served 17 years in the legislature, holds down the No. 2 spot on the pension moolah list among current retirees. If Barisoff lives to age 80, he’ll collect $1.57 million.
“We all hope he lives much longer than that,” Bateman said.
“But we felt age 80 was a reasonable cutoff to estimate lifetime pension benefits, since the average life expectancy of a federal MP is 85.”
At the top of the list is former premier Gordon Campbell, one of three MLAs who’s already retired since the last election (along with fellow Liberals Iain Black and Barry Penner).
Campbell, currently Canada’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, stands to collect $1.7 million in pension benefits, after serving 15 years in the legislature.
Rounding out the top five are three other Liberals: George Abbott, Colin Hansen and Murray Coell, each of whom can collect $1.54 million in benefits to age 80.
“It’s way too rich,” Bateman said. “That’s why the private sector has abandoned these kind of lucrative defined-benefit plans. They’re too expensive and not sustainable.”
Bateman is calling on the legislature to reinstate the more modest RRSP plan for MLAs, funded on an equal dollar-for-dollar basis with taxpayers before it was scrapped in 2007.
“That was a fair and affordable plan that all parties supported in 1996 when it was introduced,” Bateman said.
“What’s especially objectionable is there are seven retiring Liberal MLAs who campaigned in 1996 against precisely the type of gold-plated pension they’re accepting today.”
But Liberal MLA John Les, retiring from politics after 12 years at the legislature, defended the pension plan.
“Is it a good plan? Yes, of course. But is it over the top? No, it’s not,” said Les, who stands to collect $835,000 by age 80.
He said MLAs often make less than what they could earn in the private sector, and he notes cabinet ministers are paid less than unelected deputy ministers.
“You can look at these pensions as deferred compensation,” he said.
NDP MLA Shane Simpson also defended the pensions, and neither party has plans to scale back the benefits if they win the election.
“When people go into public life you’re asking them to give up 10 or 12 or 15 of their best earning years,” he said. “I don’t consider it outrageous.”
But MLA retirement benefits don’t end there.
Consider that when MLAs voted in 2007 to scrap the old RRSP system, MLAs were allowed to “buy back” pension coverage for the years the RRSP was in place.
The cost to B.C. taxpayers for MLAs to buy back their “lost” pension years: $21.5 million.
Then there’s “transitional assistance,” under which retiring or defeated MLAs continue to receive their full taxpayer-financed salaries for up to 15 months while they look for new work.
And get this: If an ex-MLA takes a job that pays less than an MLA base salary of $101,859, taxpayers top up their wages to the full amount!
The cost to taxpayers of this perk, after the last two elections: $2.7 million.
There’s also coverage for “career counselling, education and training” for up to $9,000 per ex-MLA, an amount that can be increased at the discretion of the speaker.
I’d love to tell you the names of all the MLAs who pocketed these extra retirement perks, but those names are kept secret — something all four political parties say should be corrected.
“This is the taxpayers’ money and they deserve to know exactly where it goes,” said Conservative leader John Cummins, who’s already collecting a federal MP’s pensions that stands to pay him $1.3 million by the time he’s 80.
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RETIREES LIST
Here are the 21 retiring MLAs who qualify for pensions and their estimated payouts to age 80. (Five other MLAs are also retiring but are not pension-eligible.)
B.C. Liberals
Gordon Campbell $1.7 million (left office in 2011)
Bill Barisoff $1.57 million
George Abbott $1.54 million
Colin Hansen $1.54 million
Murray Coell $1.54 million
Kevin Krueger $1.5 million
Barry Penner $1.35 million (left office in 2011)
Pat Bell $1.09 million
Kevin Falcon $1.09 million
Blair Lekstrom $1.04 million
Randy Hawes $847,000
Harry Bloy $720,000
John Les $835,000
Dave Hayer $824,000
Ron Cantelon $596,000
Joan McIntyre $568,500
Iain Black $520,000 (left office in 2011)
NDP
Guy Gentner $500,000
Michael Sather $490,000
Gary Coons $490,000
Diane Thorne $461,000
— Source: Canadian Taxpayers Federation
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