MP pensions have increased 11.4% over last two years, according to new Treasury Board report

New numbers from the federal Treasury Board indicate that annual MP pensions averaged $81,140 last year.

That’s up 11.4 per cent, compounded over the last two years due to inflation indexing, according to Blacklock’s Reporter .

The indexation covers retirement allowances, survivor benefits, and disability pensions based on cost-of-living increases.

1,193 MPs, retirees and family members are enrolled in the benefits plan. Payments last year included benefits to 192 widows and orphans.

“A plan member’s benefits are based on the number of years of pensionable service at retirement, where that service was accrued, the age at which they start receiving benefits and whether they retire because of a disability,” states the Treasury Board report.

To get a pension, MPs must serve for at least six years. Six MPs fell short of that after losing in the recent federal election. That includes ex-Liberals Han Dong (Don Valley North, ON) and Irek Kusmierczyk (Windsor—Tecumseh, ON), and New Democrats Taylor Bachrach (Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC), Laurel Collins (Victoria), Matthew Green (Hamilton Centre, ON) and Lyndsay Mathyssen (London—Fanshawe, ON).

In 2000, parliament mandated all MPs to enroll in the pension plan .

Then in 2005, parliament passed An Act To Amend The Parliament Of Canada Act mandating automatic annual pay hikes for MPs based on inflation and a labour department index of wage settlements in the unionized private sector.

Cabinet has waived the automatic April 1 raises only once, for three years following the 2008 financial panic.

• Here are the 80 MPs set to qualify for a pension with the help of a Liberal rule change
• Justin Trudeau set to earn more than $8 million in government pensions and severance

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