DEAR EDITOR:
I recently received my first pension cheques from the Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security. I am a baby boomer and after a lifetime of service in private industry, I can tell you that the amount of money I am getting after that lifetime, will not keep me alive.
There is no such thing as retirement in private industry. I have to continue working and making extra money because the government is taking every cent away from me with one hand that it is paying to me from the other. Only public service pensions will actually keep you alive. In public service, you can serve in the military, retire, then run for office, retire, then run again, retire, and then get to run B.C. Ferries and get special pensions. My dad worked for Victoria Machinery Depot to build B.C.'s ferries. He got Canada Pension. David Hahn worked to destroy the ferries and he gets a quarter million dollars a year. After only six years!
At the end of my 42 years of work and service including two years in the RCAF, I am a veteran and virtually bankrupt. I owe nothing, but cannot live on government fees.
When my parents retired in the early '80s, they could easily live off the income from their pensions. In fact one parent's pension income was enough to pay for the house taxes, cable, hydro, water, phone, gas and groceries. With both of them there was enough to save and give gifts to children and grandchildren on their birthdays and Christmas.
When I look at my disposable income after the government takes their fees and taxes, they are taking more than I earned in an entire lifetime of work. I have been made one of their slaves for life.
I am now chronicling my life as a pensioner. The province wants input on senior problems. I can tell you that the next generation is totally screwed and there will be massive abuse.
Leo Vanderbyl
North Vancouver
