We don't often get worked up about politicians voting for their own pay raises but we are outraged at the Metro Vancouver board’s decision to give departing members a retirement allowance.
Directors are mayors and councillors, and they already get paid extra for this additional gig, which is appointed, not elected. For long-serving Metro members who will soon be out the door, this retirement allowance will be lucrative.
This is not what most people get to do. In Canada, workers have had to fight to receive pensions through union bargaining or bargaining in the private sector job marketplace, and many Canadians don’t even have a company pension.
We understand that politicians' pay has to keep pace, to a degree, with inflation, but the justification of Metro board members for voting for a pension allowance — retroactive more than 10 years — is woefully inadequate.
And although the dollar figure maybe small compared to the overall Metro Vancouver budget, is still an insult to voters, who don’t get a say in the matte
