× Toronto Sun FREE - In Google Play VIEW m.torontosun SUN+ LOGIN Menu Toronto & GTA Ontario + NewsNEWS NEWS Shame on City Hall this Remembrance Day Mike Strobel Today at 6:03 PM Former Toronto city councillor Adam Vaughan, now a Liberal MP, at Toronto City Hall Monda July 7, 2014. (Stan Behal/Toronto Sun) article At cenotaphs across Toronto, city councillors will shake soldiers’ hands and thank them for their service. I don’t know how those brazen politicos can do so without blushing. I’m amazed they can even look an Armed Forces member in the eye on Remembrance Day, or any day. The councillors are assured of big, fat golden handshakes when they leave City Hall. The soldiers? Zilch. Nil. The feds have stopped giving severance payments to the military. In what world is that OK? Did you read our Don “Pistol” Peat’s story on estimated severance outlays for departing Toronto councillors? It spoiled my weekend. A few lowlights from Don’s expose: Adam “Red Dawn” Vaughan gets an estimated $70,264 in severance. SEVERANCE?! Was Red Dawn fired without cause? Let go? Laid off? Set adrift on a raft in Lake Ontario? He was not, much as we might have wished. No, no, Adam eagerly abandoned his council seat to seek greater glory kissing Justin Trudeau’s hiney on Parliament Hill — and takes $70,264 of our money with him. I wonder how much your boss will pay you if you quit like that. Not $70,264, that’s for sure. He might buy you dinner and a Timex. But Gloria Lindsay Luby decides to end a thoroughly mediocre 16-year stint on Toronto council — and pockets an estimated $105,397. You mean she was forced out? Laid off? Constructively dismissed? Goaded into flight by Giorgio Mammoliti’s jokes? Nope. She just quit ... and gets $105,397. Try pulling that little stunt at your job. John Parker gets his severance — an estimated $70,264 — as the only incumbent defeated on Oct. 27. What?! He lost, fair and square. In the real world that’s called dismissal with cause. Two weeks pay if you’re lucky, and they take away your desk key. In the bubble that is city council, when you resign, retire, lose your seat, run away to join ISIS or are abducted by aliens, doesn’t matter — you get A MONTH’S PAY for every year in office. Now, what about our brave soldiers? If any public servants deserve a golden goodbye, it’s the men and women of our armed forces. They actually serve the public — including in nasty locales like Afghanistan, Mali, Iraq and Bosnia. Until 2012, they, too, looked forward to a chunk of goodbye cash, though much less than our fat cat councillors — seven days pay for every year served. Same was true for most federal workers, until the Tories got wise to potential annual savings of $500 million. “Costly entitlements that average Canadians don’t enjoy and should not have to pay for,” is how Treasury Board president Tony Clement described the severance handshakes. Exactly. The civil servants had their lost payouts partly offset by salary hikes — but taxpayers will still save billions. I’d have spared the military from the cut. But Stephen Harper never listens to me. I don’t begrudge a little extra thank-you in the parting pay pack of a guy who ate dust in Kandahar or dangled from a rescue chopper o’er the briny ocean. But city councillors!? Is there no limit to their greed? Must we give them a last grasp? No one else gets one — not even defenders of the realm. If I were a soldier getting an official Remembrance Day handshake ... I’d check after to make sure I still had my hand. (Editor’s note: Strobel, the Union of Politicians, Yesmen, Officials, Underlings, Rascals and Sycophants (UPYOURS) is on the line. They want you canned, pronto.) Sure thing, boss, if I can get a juicy sendoff like theirs. On the other hand, I guess UPYOURS has a point. Like the military, politics is dangerous duty. That video of dear Councillor Pam McConnell bowled over by Mayor Rob Ford reminded me of a TVO special on the Boer War. Perhaps poor Pammie deserves the $100,000-plus she’ll get when she (finally) moves on. The outgoing mayor himself often fought pitched battles — against TV cameras, footballs, elevator doors and “birds, birds, birds.” So maybe UPYOURS is right. Maybe city politicians are more deserving of a parting gift than are our troops. Right. Sure. Maybe if they moved council meetings to Kabul. Strobel’s column usually runs Monday to Thursday. Hear him at 94.9 The Rock FM, Tuesday and Thursday mornings. [email protected] YOU HAVE READ 10 OF 10 COMPLIMENTARY SUN+ ARTICLES. Login or Subscribe to a SUN+ package now. Get more details here. Share on facebookShare on twitterShare on googleShare on emailMore Sharing Services 1 Show comments (42) NewsNEWS Menu Back to top Back to top Settings Turn images off | A A A View full site Download the App Contact us | Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Copyright @ 1995-2014 m.torontosun
Posted on: Tue, 11 Nov 2014 01:13:45 +0000
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