Politicians making a bad decision about the future can be galling; a board of elected officials reaching into the past to wrong a right is infuriating.
The majority of the Metro Vancouver Regional District Board – including City of North Vancouver Mayor Darrell Mussatto – voted to give departing members a retirement allowance retroactive to 2007. The $498,000 lump sum leaves taxpayers shelling out for today and yesterday.
This getaway payday arrives when private sector pensions seem like relics from the era of three-martini lunches. And despite assurances from the Canada Pension Plan investment board CEO, many young Canadians have little confidence CPP will still be alive when their working lives end.
Metro Vancouver’s board members routinely endure long meetings, navigate conflicting interests and weather the occasional scathing editorial while ensuring the air is clear and the drinking water is clean. But that’s what they signed up for. This cookie jar approach to economics – and the defence of it – is beneath them.
If they were concerned only with the next group of board members, the allowance wouldn’t have been retroactive. If they weren’t trying to take home more money, they wouldn’t be taking home more money.
Municipal politicians are very familiar with working groups, citizen boards, third-party information reports, alternative approval processes, referendums, and other techniques that take decisions out of their hands. But when it comes to money, they decided to be hands on.
We hope the next board is hands off, especially when it comes to our pockets.
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