From the Office of Ontario Conservative Leader Tim Hudak
QUEEN’S PARK October, 18th, 2013 – While waiting to see if the Liberals’ upcoming fall economic statement actually has any plan for Premier Kathleen Wynne to rein in gold-plated government pensions, Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak today laid out what must be done with one of the fastest-growing costs in the provincial budget.
Ontario Opposition and Conservative Party Leader Tim Hudak
“It is patently unfair for Ontario’s taxpayers, many of whom have no pension whatsoever, to have to keep pumping billions into under-funded and overly-generous pension plans for government workers,” said Hudak.
“The problem is huge. According to one study, the province’s hydro bureaucracies employ 10,000 people who will be entitled to a taxpayer-backed pension of $100,000 a year or more.
“Trouble is, these Crown corporations had pension shortfalls of nearly $5 billion,” Hudak said. “It’s irresponsible to keep handing out $100,000 pensions to new government hires when the fund is already billions in the red.”
Financial analysis shows that if all the government pension promises and plans fall short, it will put the taxpayer on the hook for upwards of $100 billion. The finance minister and taxpayers should be losing sleep over this issue alone.
“After nine months as Premier, hundreds of conversations and dozens of panels, surely Premier Wynne has it all figured out by now and will present her plan in her first fall economic statement,” said Hudak.
“Only the Ontario PCs have put forward a plan to get the province on the right track. The Premier knows this, and Ontarians know this.”
According to Julia Munro, the PC Seniors and Retirement Security Critic, the only path to sustainable retirement security is the Ontario PCs’ proposal to move new government workers to retirement savings plans like those common in the private sector.
“The system we have now has Ontario in a mess,” Munro said.
(Niagara At Large invites you to share your views on this post. A reminder that we only post comments by individuals who share their first and last name with them.)
Niagara At Large 
Jeez Timmy … I don’t know where you get the $100,000 from – I sure wish my pension was that much. Mine is more like $18,000/year after almost 20 years working for the Ontario taxpayers. And I was reasonably well-paid when I was working.
There might be a very few getting the big pensions, but most of us who worked for the government paid into our pension plan every payday. If the government held back their portion (as employers are permitted to do) and then suddenly find they are in a jam when they do have to pay (AS REQUIRED BY CONTRACT), that is not our fault.
Trying to blame the province’s fiscal problems on the backs of its employees is typical of Tim Hudak — NO CLASS!
What I really want to say to Tim Hudak cannot be put on this website because there are rules about “good taste” etc. Suffice it to say that as a conservative, my opinion of Tim Hudak is about the same as my opinion of Dalton McGuinty.
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We the taxpayers are between a rock & a hard place….. these top dollar pensions are insulting to the regular, hard working person who deserve a fair shake…..we have to start somewhere & if you Tim Hudak can level the playing field in an honest upright way, & cut back on the ridiculous perks given to the chosen few to show your concern & make things happen , credibility could be restored…… I hope this isn’t followed by ” when cows can fly!”…. we the public need action not words & honesty not promises that never materialize….. your work is cut out for you…. step up to the plate & make it happen.
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This is another Hudak snow job, playing selectively with numbers. The 1%’ers understand Hudak’s message: A race to the bottom with lower taxes and lower cost labour! I have never worked for any level of government, but government workers I know have less benefits and pension than I, a retiree from the old private sector smoke stack industries. If there is a deficit problem with government employee pension plans it is either employer contribution deferrals as Will states and / or staff reductions by early retirement burning up surpluses, plus under performance of all pension plan reserve investment vehicles the last decade. What is needed is gold plated pension plans for all workers and the new starving entrepreneurial class (mostly made up of redundant workers). Did Tim happen to mention his position on the possibility of a new Ontario Pension Plan (OPP)? An idea floated due to Federal inaction on Canada Pension Plan increases.
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“The only path to sustainable retirement security is the Ontario PCs’ proposal to move new government workers to retirement savings plans like those common in the private sector.”
So the plan is that new workers will get little to no pension, and CEO, beurocrats, and executives will continue to get pensions even greater than Hudak’s?
Career politician complaining about bloated government expenses…yawn…can we just hurry up and have the son of two public employees lose the election so we can move on to a PC leader with a plan to do something, as opposed to current strategies of undoing things?
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I wonder if Timmy will refuse his pension when the time comes. For such a great proponent of the private sector, he refuses to work in it. It is beneath his dignity. Talking the talk is one thing. Walking the walk is entirely different. He has made ample use of government hand outs during his lifetime and I suspect he will continue to do so.
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How do we get better pensions for the rest of us? Many of us do not have company pension plans and because we are not earning enough to sock away enough money for RRSPs, we are simply not going to be able to retire at all. Yet at the same time, many of us are tired of paying taxes to help some others retire with high level pensions that pay more than what most working people earn in a year.
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And yet another factor that affects our competitiveness as a jurisdiction attempting to attract business investment.
Do you think for a second these liabilities are not on the radar of any company that is planning on investing here and paying taxes here? Like I would want to start a company here, then in 5+ years just as I am becoming profitable….. BLAM….. the government slaps a surcharge tax, debt retirement tax…. or whatever tax they choose to implement to cover this and any other shortfall that exists and wipes out my profitability. I don’t think so!
This is the tip of the iceberg.
Until ALL Levels of government reign in spending across the board and decrease taxes for its private and corporate citizens, the jobs they won’t come. We all know the money is there already. It just needs to be used more effectively!
Just sayin……
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The financial disaster in Greece, and world wide for that matter, has nothing to do with social programs or public sector employees, or the need for austerity measures. Rich corporations and the wealthy have as much as $32 TRILLION hidden in offshore accounts in more than 30 offshore tax havens. All of the debt in the US and Canada is due to our governments purposefully allowing very rich and profitable corporations, and the wealthy to “legally” avoid paying taxes, and in some cases they not only pay zero taxes, but collect money from the government for moving factories and jobs offshore. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=–SalUDUTkA
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