Last week the CTF urged the Saskatchewan government to copy a good idea from Ottawa and Nova Scotia - strip politicians convicted of serious crimes of the taxpayer-funded portion of their pensions.
As noted in our news release, Nova Scotia passed such legislation in 2013 and Ottawa is currently considering a private members bill to enact a similar penalty.
We wrote to Premier Wall to urge his government to consider copying the concept and bring it to Saskatchewan. Late last week we got a response from Premier Wall; a response that punted the idea over to Minister Krawetz (click here to view).
Understandably, there is a financial impact should such a measure be put into place. However, that's not really the point of the idea. It's about accountability.
Politicians who commit serious crimes (such as fraud) while in office should lose the portion of their pensions that taxpayers fund. It's just a good governance mechanism. And if you think such abuse would never happen in Saskatchewan, consider the Grant Devine era scandal that rocked the province. Consider the criticisms against Pamela Wallin, a suspended Saskatchewan senator. Consider all the other senate shenanigans going on right now or say the fact Nova Scotia has already used its legislation to penalize one of its MLAs.
The letter we sent copied opposition leader Cam Broten...perhaps he'll see the merit in this idea and bring forward a private members' bill?
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