OTTAWA - The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is voicing its concern that a plan to move back the 2025 election by a week could trigger a number of MP pensions.
The move is part of the federal government's electoral reform legislation brought in last week. Under that legislation, the plan is to move back the federal election from the scheduled Oct. 20, 2025 to Oct. 27, 2025, the reason being to accommodate Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights happening that date.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is claiming the one week delay triggers pension eligibility for members of Parliament elected in 2019.
CTF released a list of 80 MPs who would become eligible, stating that the additional pensions total $120 million. This is the estimated lifetime pension for all of them should they all lose their seats. The annual starting pension ranges from $32,000 to $49,000.
“If even half of these MPs lose, moving back the election one week would cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars,” said Franco Terrazzano, CTF Federal Director in a news release. “When MPs tweak the system to pad their pockets, it sends a signal to thousands of bureaucrats that they should dig deeper into the trough too... Leadership starts at the top and MPs are going the wrong way.”
While much of the focus has been on the 22 Liberal and six NDP MPs on the list due to the NDP’s supply and confidence agreement, with claims on social media that those same MPs could potentially "cash in" on pensions right before being defeated in an election, the list of potentially eligible MPs includes those from all political parties.
It includes one Independent, 19 Bloc Québécois MPs and 32 Conservative MPs including five from Saskatchewan. Those MPs in Saskatchewan standing to benefit from the change include Michael Kram in Regina-Wascana, Brad Redekopp in Saskatoon West, Warren Steinley in Regina-Lewvan, Corey Tochor in Saskatoon-University, and Gary Vidal in Desnethe-Missinippi-Churchill River.
While that might raise some eyebrows locally, it should be noted the Conservative caucus has been active lately in trying to bring down the Justin Trudeau government well in advance of that 2025 election and potential pension bump. The Conservatives tried and failed last week to pass a non-confidence motion to trigger an election on the carbon tax, with Liberal, NDP and Bloc MPs voting to defeat it.
The CTF points out MPs are eligible for a pension after six years of service, and that MPs first elected in the 2019 election are not eligible for the pension until Oct. 21, 2025.
“This looks like the government is pushing back the election so more MPs can take a very lucrative, taxpayer-funded pension,” said Terrazzano. “If politicians don’t want to look shady, then they should stop doing shady stuff like this.”
