• CTF also called on the province to freeze spending and reject new taxes such as a carbon tax or healthcare premium tax.

BRANDON, MB: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) called on MLAs to reform their pension plan as a key part of a pre-budget submission that also recommended a freeze on government spending and a rejection of new taxes such as a carbon tax or healthcare premium tax. The full CTF submission is available at this LINK.

 “After years of asking the government to release the MLA pension report, the CTF finally got a copy and it shows taxpayers had to shell out $2.79 for every dollar MLAs contributed for their own retirement fund,” said Todd MacKay, the CTF’s Prairie Director. “It’s obviously unfair to force taxpayers to pay more than MLAs pay into the Legislature retirement plan. More importantly, the dire need for government employee pension reform is a multi-billion-dollar problem and MLAs need to show leadership by reforming their own plan first.”

MLAs contributed $404,351 to their pension plan while the government contributed $1.13 million, according to the Legislative Assembly Pension Plan 2016 Annual Report. MLAs contribute 7% of their salaries, but receive guaranteed benefits starting at age 55 and taxpayers are responsible for any shortfalls in the fund. Manitoba is facing an overall unfunded liability in its pension fund for government employees of $2.8 billion.

“MLAs need to reform their pension to making a matching RRSP plan,” said MacKay. “That would still be a better pension plan than most Manitobans have, but it will be fairer and sets the stage for overall pension reform.”

The CTF also called for the province to freeze overall spending after spending soared by a combined $1.28 billion in the last two budgets. According to budget projections, simply stopping spending from rising would cut the province’s operational budget to $357 million.

The CTF rounded out its recommendations by telling the province to reject new taxes such as a carbon tax or a healthcare premium tax.

“Families in Manitoba already pay provincial taxes that are thousands of dollars higher than their neighbours in Saskatchewan or Ontario have to pay,” said MacKay. “Manitobans don’t need more taxes, whether it’s a carbon tax, healthcare premium tax or any other tax.”

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