Dear Editor
April 1 is here and it appears that the joke will be on those of us who are federal superannuates.
It was announced by Treasury Board president Tony Clements that this is the date in 2015 that our health care co-payments would begin increasing. Over the next few years we will see our co-payments rise from 20 per cent to 50 per cent, and starting April 1 this year, our premiums will double.
Mr. Clements laughably calls this a "fair" deal, and claims both sides "gave a little." I fail to see how this so-called negotiated agreement could be called fair when it was delivered with the threat of punitive legislation, and how doubling the medical costs of thousands of retirees living on a fixed income could mean the Treasure Board gave anything. In my world, negotiating means give and take, so why is it that we always give and they always take?
Mr. Clement and his labour-bashing cronies have broken a contract with current retirees, by retroactively and unilaterally changing benefits and premiums. Mr. Clement claims this deal will save $6.7 billion, but that saving comes at the cost of taking that money from the pockets of federal retirees, all of whom are taxpayers and consumers as well.
The Harper and Wall Conservatives make a practice of balancing the books on the backs of labour and the aged, which seems to be popular with their big business supporters. Perhaps they should take a long, hard look at where business profits will be headed when they get their wish of everyone working for minimum wage. When the people who can least afford it are paying for obscene corporate profits and CEO bonuses greater than the gross income of some Third World countries, and democracy is threatened as never before in Canada, the old saying that "the worm will turn when trodden on" should become our mantra.
It is my fondest wish that the people who have been wronged and robbed will band together and remove Harper and Wall in the next election, and I for one will be standing up to be counted.
Lyle E, Comstock
Battleford
