Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Second day back, Tories use time allocation on Pooled Registered Pension Plans Act

PARLIAMENT HILL—Prime Minister Stephen Harper approved the use of time allocation on Tuesday for the 11th time so far in this Parliament, to limit debate on an obscure private-sector pension bill the opposition parties say is an attempt to deflect attention from the firestorm Mr. Harper set off last week over the fate of government pensions for low-income seniors.

The vote, easily carried by Mr. Harper’s (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) majority, means an early vote on Bill C-25, the Pooled Registered Pension Plans Act, would allow employees and self-employed people to pool contributions and set up their own pension plans outside private-sector employer plans and the Canada Pension Plan.

After the vote in the House on Tuesday, Liberal MP Mark Eyking (Sydney-Victoria, N.S.) said there is little doubt the move over the private pension bill— which the government lined up at the last minute pushing aside a long-awaited final debate on legislation dismantling the federal gun registry—is a “smoke screen” to divert attention from a storm of reaction as the future of Old Age Security came into question.

“They’re trying to make it look like they’re doing something for the pensions, it’s all smoke and mirrors,” Mr. Eyking told The Hill Times after the vote. “I think they’re in real trouble over what he said in Davos, as Bob Rae says, ‘From the perch of the Alpines, he says he’s going to pickpocket the seniors.’”

Mr. Eyking said he saw Conservative MPs who were unsettled on Monday as Interim Liberal Leader Mr. Rae (Toronto Centre, Ont.) took on Mr. Harper over his pension comments. Though Prime Minister Harper did not mention Old Age Security specifically in a speech in Davos, Switzerland, he promised transformative changes to Canada’s public pension system and his aides told reporters that was where his comments were directed, and stories later circulated Mr. Harper might also be thinking of raising the CPP-retirement qualification to age 67 from 65.

Mr. Harper has promised existing recipients will continue to receive the same level of both pensions, with OAS coming directly out of the government’s general revenues and CPP from managed investment funds, but said in the Commons the government wants to ensure CPP companion benefits remain sustainable in the future.

“At the end of the day, they’ve got to get off this channel, there’s a lot of backbench Conservatives over there who were very nervous when Bob Rae was speaking about it in the House yesterday,” Mr. Eyking said.

Treasury Board President Tony Clement (Parry Sound-Muskoka, Ont.) declined to comment on the government decision to put off debate on Bill C-19, the gun registry bill, until next week in favour of the pension legislation, which the government had not moved forward in the Commons since its first reading on Nov. 17, 2011.

“The House leader and the Prime Minister, I’m sure, discuss those things, it’s not really my purview,” Mr. Clement told The Hill Times after the vote.

“All I can tell you is I think it’s perfectly appropriate on the first week back to be talking about issues revolving around job creation, and economic certainty and protecting our incomes and wealth creation, that’s a perfectly justifiable topic to spend public time on,” he said.

Original Article
Source: Hill Times 
Author: TIM NAUMETZ  

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