Rafferty discusses budget

A federal member of Parliament said he is disappointed the federal budget didn’t include pension protection.

NDP MP John Rafferty (Thunder Bay – Rainy River) held a town hall meeting at Confederation College on Sunday. Rafferty held similar town hall meetings in Fort Frances and in Atikokan. The meetings are informal and open to any topic but were primarily dominated by the issues of pensions, the federal budget and the harmonized sales tax. Less than eight people attended the meeting.

Rafferty said Canada is in the dark ages when it came to pension protection. He said he expected some kind of pension support in the new budget.

"We were given those subtle signals from the government that there would be something in the budget," Rafferty said. "It is a budget that I’m very disappointed with. I guess you could call it a Bay Street budget."

The budget announced on Thursday focused on tax cuts for corporations and a continuation of stimulus spending to the tune of $19 billion. Rafferty said the tax breaks would help banks and oil companies but not seniors and pensioners.

Rafferty said the government should spend money on seniors who are struggling financially and estimated it would cost $700 million dollars to get seniors out of poverty.

"Where do seniors spend their money? They spend it in the community," he said. "They give birthday presents to their grandchildren, pay their rent and pay for all the other things that seniors are struggling with. If you want to talk about a stimulus package, that is $700 million dollars directly back into communities across Canada."

Last November, Rafferty said he would move heaven and earth to help pensioners get a meeting with the federal government. He said he made a package for the budget with pensions as a major concern. At the time, he said he hoped the government would have agreed with the idea.

Rafferty said there is a chance to amend the budget when it goes through the debate process next week. Rafferty added he is working on a new piece of legislation to protect pensions and would introduce the bill sometime in April.