Tax cheats?

Re: Bill Moreau’s Maltese Falcon, Terence Corcoran, Oct. 5 Your article on tax reforms hit a nerve, being a retired small business owner. For over 20 years, all along paying my taxes, I was able to put aside $ 1.2 million in passive investing for my retirement.

I play hockey with a bunch of retired teachers and Ontario Power Generation ( OPG) workers. To see a person retire from OPG at the age of 55, whose decision is whether he ports his pension worth $ 1.7 million or stays within the plan getting $60,000 to $70,000 fully indexed, makes me wonder why are we are considered tax cheats. Frank Evestaff, Oshawa, Ont. Terence Corcoran has hit the nail on the head. I have l ong been in a minority, wondering aloud about the pension and benefit entitlements of the government class, compared with the rest of us who pay for it. There’s nothing fair about it.

Further, if one were to examine how some of the public service labour monopoly collective agreement clauses are paid, and I’m speaking specifically to “top up” schemes whereby a teacher on EI, or WCB, has their pay topped up to their regular salary, my suspicion is that if this is from any pension trust money at all, it exposes the entire trust to tax.

What is needed, i mmediately, is a full forensic audit of public service labour agreements, clause by clause against privatesector agreements.

Any entitlement or benefit that does not exist in at least 50 per cent of privatesector agreements should be l egislated out, in the name of fairness. Note that even this doesn’t approach “fair,” as one would need to consider the population working outside of collective agreements. Kelly E. Morris, Parkland County, Alta.