Senate looks for details about fate of disgraced senator’s pension
The Liberal government is blaming its Conservative predecessor for the fact Don Meredith will be able to collect an annual pension once the disgraced Ontario senator formally resigns his seat in the upper chamber.
The Senate asked the federal Treasury Board about what would happen to Meredith’s pension should his peers vote to kick him out
– an unprecedented move that’s technically still a possibility, despite Meredith’s stated plan to quit.
Treasury Board President Scott Brison, whose department oversees parliamentary pensions, said there is nothing in the law that would allow his department to deny benefits from a senator or member of Parliament who resigns.
A senator or MP who is expelled is only entitled to collect the contributions they made to the pension plan, including interest, Brison’s department later clarified.
Changing the pension rules would require legislative change, a process that would take long enough that passage of a bill would happen well after Meredith leaves, Brison noted Wednesday after the government’s weekly caucus meeting.
“Even if an act of Parliament were changed, it would not apply retroactively,” he said.
“So let’s be very clear on what can or cannot be changed and not try to spin this and deflect responsibility from (former prime minister) Stephen Harper and the Conservatives.”
Brison wouldn’t say whether the act should be changed, nor would he provide more details about the law itself when pressed by reporters.
Meredith released a vaguely worded statement Tuesday that his lawyer confirmed was him saying he intended to resign – a statement that came the day before the Senate could have voted to expel him over his sexual relationship with a teenage girl.
Like a number of disgraced senators before him, resigning his Senate seat would ensure Meredith gets to keep a pension that the Canadian Taxpayers Federation estimates to be worth about $24,420 a year.
Were he to start collecting benefits in July 2019 at age 55 and continue to age 90, Meredith would earn about $1.1 million with cost of living increases factored in, based on the watchdog group’s calculations.
Conservative Sen. Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu said the Senate cannot take away Meredith’s pension.