Justin Trudeau set to earn more than $8 million in government pensions and severance

Former prime minister Justin Trudeau will be eligible for more than $8 million in pensions and severance, according to calculations from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation . The advocacy group ran the numbers on the pension entitlements of all 110 members of Parliament who either didn’t run for re-election or lost their bid to return to Ottawa. Among them was Trudeau, who did not run in the 2025 federal election, having announced in early January his intention to resign as leader of the Liberal party and as prime minister. Trudeau, the group said, will receive $104,900 in severance. If he lives to age 90, he will receive $8.4 million in pension payments for his more than 16 years of service as a member of Parliament and almost 10 years as prime minister. There is a separate pension for being an MP and for being prime minister, said Franco Terrazzano, the federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. “This is Canadian taxpayers’ money. Canadians deserve to know how much politicians are making when they’re in office, but then also, too, how much they’re getting when they leave office, right? It’s the fundamental principle of transparency and accountability,” Terrazzano said. Canadian parliamentarians become eligible for a pension after six years of service. That means that 29 MPs who lost their jobs won’t receive pensions. However, they did receive severance pay. MPs receive severance if they are ineligible for a pension or if they have not reached 55 — the age the pension begins. That means that some former MPs receive both a pension and severance if they served six or more years but are not yet 55. Severance for a backbencher is $104,900 and severance for a cabinet minister is $154,850. The smallest pension on the list goes to Quebec Liberal Yves Robillard, who was first elected in 2015, and represented the Quebec riding of Marc-Aurèle-Fortin. He will receive just $387,000 by the time he is 90. Trudeau has the largest pension of the bunch, receiving $141,000 annually. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, who lost his seat of Carleton, is entitled to more than $7 million in pension payments, although he intends to run in a byelection and return to the House of Commons, and is not taking the severance that he would otherwise be entitled to. Former NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, who resigned after losing his Burnaby Central seat, will collect $140,300 in severance and will receive almost $2.7 million in pension payments by age 90. There are 13 MPs on the list who will receive annual pension payments in excess of $100,000. Among them is former NDP MP Charlie Angus, who’s entitled to $3.9 million by age 90 and former Liberal transport minister Omar Alghabra, who’s entitled to $3.4 million. Randy Boissonnault, the Edmonton MP who resigned as a cabinet minister following National Post’s reporting into inconsistencies in stories of his heritage, and later dropped out of the election race, is entitled to $44,200 in severance, plus almost $2.8 million in pension payments by the age of 90. George Chahal, the other Alberta Liberal MP between 2021 and 2025, did not serve long enough to get a pension, so he will receive only $104,900 in severance. Ditto for Blake Desjarlais, an Edmonton New Democrat who lost in 2025. Harjit Sajjan, who served as Trudeau’s defence minister, will receive $4 million in pension payments by the time he is 90. “I think many Canadians are going to see these numbers and be outraged, because some of these numbers are huge, especially when you factor in the fact that the majority of workers in the private sector aren’t covered by a workplace pension,” siad Terrazzano. “We need a culture change in Ottawa. The leadership has to start with the top, especially if they’re going to tackle the big debt issues, the big cost, the bureaucracy. We have to see leadership at the top. So, you know, we need to see politicians reign in their own paying perks.” He said future prime ministers should not be entitled to two pensions.

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