$7 million is an "outrage", while $300 million gets swept under the carpet?

MP's focused on $7 million paid to CPP execs, and ignore $300 million lost by CPP on trust tax

Yesterday witnessed a classic case of Ottawa being penny wise and pound foolish and holding others guilty while their own policy and gross professional misconduct gets swept under the carpet. The CPP lost $300 million due to the income trust tax. A tax that was premised on “tax leakage”, the proof of which has never been forthcoming. This was a direct consequence of a policy supported by the very NDP who are up in arms about a measly (by comparison) $7 million in compensation to CPP execs. Who is the greater guilty party? CPP execs or Ottawa MPs? Which is the bigger outrage? Paying $7 million in accordance with an employment contrcat or losing $300 million based on the policy lie called tax leakage?


Claw back pension exec's bonuses: MPs

All-party support for opposition-day NDP motion

By ALTHIA RAJ, NATIONAL BUREAU
Toronto Sun

OTTAWA -- MPs told the federal government to claw back $7 million in bonus payments to top Canada Pension Plan executives yesterday.

The NDP motion -- which passed with all-party-support -- aims to recoup millions in performance bonuses to top executives at the CPP Investment Board and ban any future payouts.

'IT'S OBSCENE'

"It's obscene," NDP pension critic Wayne Marston said. "They lost $24 billion and they wiped out the last four years of contributions in that loss. How can you justify any kind of a bonus to people who have failed?"

Despite losing $23.7 billion last year, four top executives saw their base salaries jump from $1.47 million in total to $9.3 million in total, the 2008-09 CPP annual report says.

The CPP Investment Board is a Crown corporation responsible for investing billions of dollars in CPP contributions to fund government pensions.

The NDP motion also calls on the federal government to establish a self-financing pension insurance program, and demands the feds ensure workers' pension funds go to the front of any creditors' line if a company files bankruptcy proceedings.

"We insure our cars, we insure our homes and we have deposit insurance on our savings, why can't we have a system that insures our pension plans?" Marston asked.

"Right now if a company collapses, you could lose your pension," Marston said.

"All of a sudden, your fixed income is gone and there is nothing you can do about it."

LAID OFF

Paula Klein knows how that feels. She was laid off by Nortel last December. Tomorrow, she hopes to come face to face with Nortel Networks' chief executive officer Mike Zafirovski before the House of Commons finance committee.

Klein says Nortel has paid out $45 million in bonuses to executives while it claims it can't afford to pay severance to its laid-off employees