Sunday, September 6, 1998 — North Shore News — 7

An inequitable Summer |B 24" we!

SUMMER vacation
ain’t what it used to be.

For one thing, how’s 4
guy supposed to get any
relaxation with the land head-
ing to hell in a host of hand-
baskets?

Take the pay equity issue.

A recent ruling from the
Canadian Human Rights
Tribunal — why does that
already send a shiver up the

pine? — decreed that
200,000 former and current
federal government workers
will soon cash in big time in
the pay equity lottery.

Initial estimates put the
total at anywhere from S¢4 bil-
lion up to S8 billion that
media reports said the
“Liberal government” will be
on the hook for.

First, it is not the Liberal
government. It is you and
me, the taxpayer, who will be
on the hook for what one
estinate has pegged at $500
each to cover the setulement.

Second, the whole issuc of

ay equity in government
ie bs is a byzantine mind-ben-
der of burcaucratic propor-
tions.

The case revolves around
such buzz. words as equal pay
for work of equal value. But
what that means is anyone's
guess.

In the private sector, the
value of a job is determined
by market forces. Supply and
demand — what a given

-eniployer is willing to pay for
a given employce.
But there are no marker
“forces at work in the public
‘sector.
-. . Wages are set in cloistered
. confines ¢ of the civil service.
~ As to the value ofa given
+. public sector job, we are not
comparing equal pay for the
: same'job in this whole exer-
fe are comparing the
value of different jobs
as deterritined by some arcane
biircaucratic formula.
Madness that could only be
rtawva’s unreal

re is'a thought, thous fh
é far from original:

Als; a ‘way for the
il service to pt a chunk of
what is currently projected to
$6 billion budger surplus
for:Canada.. -
knowledge; no onc
ring the lengthy Pay equity
has proposed achieving
- “equity by reducing the higher
-. public service wages to equal
their lower ‘counterparts.

in

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? Family Operated since 1934.

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~ MPs?

The result would be a
reverse windfall: a multi-bil-
lion-dollar payback to the tas-
payer instead of another back-
breaking government-gener-
ated bill.

Cail it a public-private pay
equity solution.

gaa

I know, I know: gallons of
ink have already been spilled
across Newspaper pages on
the MPs" pension issue, but,
unless I missed it, a key factor
was left on the cutting room
floor.

Fiscal fairness.

Nor just the tairness of
MPs’ pensions as they relate
to MPs who have opted in or
out of the plan,

The core issue here is the
blatant unfairness of MPs’
pension plans compared with
pension plans in the private
sector.

That inequity has been
marginally reduced in recent
years but it remains far out of

ilter.

There are currently three
pension plans rolling
around Parliament Hill, rang-
ing trom the original gold-
plated version through the
pared down silver-plated
option and on to the opted-
out version.

The fully loaded gold-plar-
ed mode! still applics to at
MPs who were eligible for it
prior to 1995, when pressure

om the Reform party and
others such as the National
Citizens’ Coalition forced
changes in the plan.

maiibox _

The gold-plated version
gathers $6 from the tax-pay-
ing public for every $1] con-
tributed to the plan by an
MP. Its new silver-plated
counterpart gathers taxpayers
money on a $4-to-$J ratio.

.

ons after only six
years in office, but instead of
being able to collect it regard-
less of their age, those with
service after 1995 must now
wait until age 55 to cash in.

MPs’ pensions remain tully
indexed against inflation after
their recipients turn 60.

And at last count, MPs*
pensions grew twice as fast as
the maximum fegal rate for
private sector pensions,

Minor reforms aside, the
MPs" pension plan remains a
government-decreed plunder-
ing of the public purse.

As to unfairness within
MP ranks:

Opted-out pension rene-
aces like North Vancouver
AP Ted White teok a double

hit to the pocketbook when
they chose to continue boy-
cotting the plan.

Legislation in 1995 pro-
vided MPs with a six-week
window to opt out of the
pension plan. After that the
window was slammed shut.
Ail new MPs eiected in 1997
were forced back inte the
pension cult. By law,

Apart from cutting them-
selves out of pension cash,
obstinate opted-outers were
denied the opportunity to
contribute to RRSPs for two
years.

White, a toiler in the pri-
vate sector prior to his foray
into federal politics, has had
the good fiscal sense to
ensure that he take care of his
own retirement years through
RRSPs and other investments.

So the RRSP penalty hit
him directly j in the pocket-

To rub more salt into the
wounds, he was assessed a
$4,000 tax bill for RRSP
investments he made during
the penalized two years.

Talk about bizarre dealings
on Parliament Hill.

Opt out of'a pension plan
on the principle that it is too
rich in comparison to private
sector plans. Save the taxpay-
ers money by declining to
collect pension largesse.
Avoid being legislated back to
the wough. Then be further
penalized by being unable to
invest in private RRSPs. Take
another hit to the wallet from
Revenue Canada for trving to
take care of your own future
outside of government.

White estimates that his
opted out decision will cost
him about $400,000. That's
not counting, his recent
$4,000 tax bill,

Expensive beasts, these

principles.
900

And last bur not feast in
this end of summer holiday
reflection: the summer school
break.

Ten weeks is t00 long by
half.

Add to the above such fac-
tors as the paltry 192 days
currently located to teaching
in B.C, during this school
year.

Compare thar with such
nations as Japan and
Germany, where the school
year clocks in at over 240
teaching days.

Consider also that the fast
month of cach school year is

iven over to celebrations and

ndoggles of all description

and that the first month is
given over to helping students
recover all the learning they
have lost during their extend-
ed summer break and you can
see why relaxation is an clu-
sive summer quarry for par-
ents.

Donen ened

Wright wrong about quotation

Dear Editor:

Noel Wright is to be com-
plimented for his attempt to
give proper meaning to the
oft-inisused quotation “igno-
rance is bliss.” However, his
quotation is also incorrect.

BGUER.

_ LEAVE An IMPRESSIONS

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