New Treasury Board figures indicate annual pensions for retired MPs averaged $81,140 last year. Payments indexed to inflation went up 11.4% compounded in the past two years.“Retirement allowances, survivor benefits and disability pensions under the plan are indexed annually to cover increases in the cost of living,” said the board’s report, per Blacklock’s Reporter. A total 1,193 MPs, retirees and family members are enrolled in the plan. Payments last year included benefits to 192 widows and orphans.“A plan member’s benefits are based on the number of years of pensionable service at retirement, where that service was accrued, the age at which they start receiving benefits and whether they retire because of a disability,” said the report. “When a member dies their eligible survivor and dependent children also receive benefits under the plan.”.MPs require a minimum six years’ service to qualify for benefits. Six MPs fell short of eligibility when they failed to win re-election April 28: ex-Liberals Han Dong (Don Valley North, ON) and Irek Kusmierczyk (Windsor-Tecumseh, ON), and New Democrats Taylor Bachrach (Skeena-Bulkley Valley, BC), Laurel Collins (Victoria), Matthew Green (Hamilton Centre, ON) and Lyndsay Mathyssen (London-Fanshawe, ON).Cabinet’s Bill C-65 An Act To Amend The Canada Elections Act that would have changed a fixed election date to benefit 28 ineligible Liberal and New Democrat MPs lapsed in the House affairs committee in 2024 following a public outcry.“This was a cynical, dishonest attempt by the Liberals and the NDP to pad their pockets with pensions,” Conservative MP Michael Cooper (St. Albert-Edmonton) told the committee. “Canadians are outraged by this.”.Parliament in 2000 mandated that all MPs enroll in the pension plan after the Reform Party sought to name and shame “gold-plated” beneficiaries.“The Reform Party was the only party to talk about the MP pension plan,” then-MP Keith Martin (Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca, BC) told the Commons at the time.“The prime minister forced all MPs in the House back into the pension plan whether they liked it or not. Those are the facts.”Parliament in 2005 passed Bill C-30 An Act To Amend The Parliament Of Canada Act mandating automatic annual pay hikes for MPs based on inflation and a labour department index of wage settlements in the unionized private sector. Cabinet has waived the automatic April 1 raises only once, for three years following the 2008 financial panic.
