Public-service pensions not the problem

Re: “Profits important, but so are pensions,” by Curtis J. Makar, Letters, Jan. 29.

I have to agree with Curtis J. Makar. Why is there this resentment and misconception that taxpayers are heavily funding public-service pensions when they are not?

Public-service employees pay heavily into their pension scheme every pay period for many years to earn and collect a pension. It is not and never has been free.

Whether they can afford to pay into the pension plan every pay period is irrelevant. They have to contribute regardless, which often causes a hardship at the time but down the road it makes for an easier life.

It is a good chunk of their salaries and it is forced savings on the part of their employer, the government of Canada. They also have to contribute into the Canada Pension Plan in addition to their pension contributions, yet many are not allowed to collect CPP or they have a reduced entitlement on retirement.

I can only imagine the outcry if that happened to many of us who pay into CPP, yet this is a reality for many public servants. It is unfairly written into their contracts. Not many people know this.

Many people would not be happy if their employers forced them to pay five per cent of their salaries into a pension over and above CPP.

If everyone put five per cent of their salaries into a pension or RRSP as public servants do, without exception, for all of their working lives, we would not have a pension crisis.

The reason we have a crisis today really has little to do with public-service pensions and everything to do with the fact that people have not saved prudently for retirement and that is no one’s fault but their own.

B. Gislason, Edmonton