A Letter to the Leader of the Ontario PC Party

Dear Mr. Tory,

My name is Grant Fleury. I am a resident of Sudbury.
I sent you a personal email back on Jan 17, 2007 and have not received
a reply or acknowledgement.

As indicated in that previous email, I have been lobbying the
provincial government to eliminate the locks from locked-in pensions
since 2004 when I discovered the limits to access of my own pension
money when I qualified to retire. I have since written articles in
local newspapers in Ontario and have been recently interviewed on the
CBC in the past few months regarding the unrealistic limits of the
current regulations of the PBA and of the discrimination of Bill 27 in
1999. Others in Ontario have also been working diligently to inform the
public of the truth and senseless arbitrary bureaucracy surrounding the
administration of locked-in pensions.

The recent announcement regarding amendments to the Pension Benefits
Act of Ontario by the Liberal government including a 25% unlocking
option, although positive steps in the right direction, do not go near
far enough to address the inequity of the two distinct classes of
citizens that were essentially created by the former Progressive
Conservative party.
As you are very well aware, Bill 27 (1999) and it's infamous
amendments, including the creation of a special exclusive group of 61
MPP's allowing a full transfer of the commuted value of their former
terminated "gold plated" pension plan to a group RRSP format bypassing
all the rules, regulations and limitations, continue to plague every
other ordinary Ontarian. Restrictions and limitations that continue to
restrict their ability to choose the level and style of retirement as
often dictated by conditions other than the "six conditions of
desperate hardship" amendments added in 2002 by the former ruling PC
party.

I agree that all pension ear-marked money should be off-limits until
the normal retirement age or 55 is reached, since it is intended for
retirement.

I agree that there may be a large number of people in the province that
do not have the financial knowledge to deal with their designated
pension assets. We have financial advisors for that purpose, just as we
have plumbers for plumbing and builders for building.

However, rather than assuming we are all inept in that area, unlike the
belief your previous PC party and the current Liberal party have of
themselves, you should adopt a positive approach of providing an
education for those that may stray instead of painting all Ontarians as
financially irresponsible. Maintaining such an attitude as this is
again shear arrogance on any level in any government.

I disagree, as supported by Statistics Canada, with the unrealistic age
of 90 used in calculating the yearly payment for these locked-in
pensions. The facts are simple - less than 1/2 of 1% live till 90. Life
expectancy is 77.2 years, not 90! Pick up any newspaper and read the
obituaries if there is any doubt.

I agree with the Saskatchewan government's lead to 100% unlock all
locked-in pensions for their residents in April of 2002 providing
retirees with more flexibility in managing their own financial affairs.
Your former PC party was ahead of their time in 1999 and had already
positively accomplished this with the grave exception that it was done
selfishly, exclusively and quietly, for all "members only" of the
legislature.

Moreover and more importantly, regardless of any of the above, and as a
direct result of the deceit and inequity of Bill 27, the basic
principle of equality for all Ontarians was broken!
This is why I, and all the other groups and organizations in Ontario,
such as CARP, are insisting on 100% equality and nothing less. If it's
good for 61, it's good for the estimated million others in Ontario who
have locked-in pensions in one form or another.
Every life is as important as the next, as is every law equally applied
for every citizen. The foundation of any true democracy is equality for
all members in it's society.
If that special deceitful exclusive provision for MPP's hadn't been
born in Bill 27, we would now be debating the merits of unlocking and
not the injustice of a misapplication of democracy, which would
probably lead us into other areas of discussing the pros and cons of
the unlocking issue.

But the reality is that "democracy" or lack thereof in this case, has
been broken and you, as party leader, and your members have inherited
this injustice.
It's now up to you to lead by example and show true leadership and
honour toward the people that you govern and re-apply that basic
principle of "EQUALITY' in our democratic society for which Ontario,
and Canada for that matter, were founded upon!

The 25% unlock amount, recently introduced, should be and could easily
be 100%. You and your party must come to terms with the simple and
missing notion of equality for all in a basic democracy where
discrimination amongst a people is totally unacceptable in every aspect
of it's application.
Condoning and upholding a paternalistic and arrogant attitude, with the
unwarranted belief that only 61 MPP's are capable of making sound
financial decisions and being the only ones to have that unique right
to manage their finances as they see fit, is an extremely disrespectful
position for you to assume to defend if you choose that route.

We, as parents and role models, are trying to teach our children about
equality and model that behaviour in our own daily lives within our
family unit. Previous generations, who worked much harder physically
with their hands, than we do today, had a much simpler way of life than
those of us experience today. I can't pick up a paper today without
finding some form of corruptive behaviour or deceit within one or more
levels of the people who govern us. Bill 27 was another stellar example
which was done purposely with intent to exclude and favour a select
few.
Seniors and retirees are astonished and outraged as they learn of this
deceitful act by the former PC party. Our forefathers escaped such
types corruption and severe arrogant control in their homeland to come
to Canada to start over with a clean slate and founded a great nation
based on the simple fundamentals of fairness and equality for all
citizens, regardless of origin.
Mr. Tory, you, being in and around my generation, no doubt were raised
with similar values as those used to create this great province and
nation.
You must do the right thing and make Ontario equal again.
I am fairly certain that you would never allow yourself to run your own
family in an undemocratic style where some would be privileged 0%, some
25% and some 100%. The honour and principles displayed in a family
should be the same type of honour and principles applied by governments
toward all it's constituents.

Bill 27 is a disgraceful slap in the face and an affront to basic
democracy in any society. You know it and so do I, along with every
Ontarian that has learned about this grave injustice created by the
previous Conservative government. The Liberal party with it's recent
budget announcement is continuing, albeit now at 75%, to insult and
disrespect the public by maintaining a paternalistic control of Ontario
retirees personal pension money.
Don't take my word for it, be honest and truthful and ask those around
you that know of Bill 27, what they think of this inequality and
injustice where two sets of rules govern certain individuals in our
province in extremely different ways regarding their same or similarly
commuted pensions.

You cannot, nor should not, ignore this inequity that was created by
your predecessors.
There cannot be any such thing as 25% or 50% or 75% more equal. Equal
is exactly what it means - 100% the same for everyone regardless of who
you are or your chosen vocation.

The former ruling Conservative party recognized the restrictive and
unrealistic paternalism of the PBA in 1999 and rightly so! As amazing
as this may sound, they in fact did the right thing to get as far away
from those regulations as they could as they all realized how
restrictive, insulting, and demeaning they were. The only HUGE mistake
they made was that they should have amended the act to include ALL
Ontarians thus upholding the basic principal of equality in our
province.

Mr. Runciman was more than well justified and showed true democratic
representation by standing up in support of Ms. Horwath's Bill 175 to
fully unlock locked-in pensions allowing all Ontarians the same 100%
unlock privilege that was afforded him and the other 60 members of the
legislature in 1999! This man truly realized the error of his previous
government and had the courage to come forward and admit a mistake.
This is an unbelievable accomplishment in light of the endless "blame
the other party" that more often than not pervades the legislature
during question period.

You sir have the unprecedented opportunity to correct the former
Conservative mistake and proudly own that accomplishment for yourself!

You will have the support of every locked-in pension holder in Ontario
at the upcoming election if you announce your guaranteed intention to
fully unlock and transfer locked-in pensions to an RRSP format at age
55 or the normal retirement date.
I assure you, as I continue my campaign to inform Ontarians of the
deceit and inequity of Bill 27 and the unrealistic and archaic
restrictions of the current rules and regulations of the PBA, there
will be hundreds of thousands of voters anxiously awaiting your
intentions regarding the locked-in issue by the time the election takes
place. The quality of retirement, and for those already living on the
edge, in their remaining years, are largely in your hands.

You and your Conservative party must now, in true and honourable
democratic fashion, insist on extending the privilege of those that
have benefited from the previous Conservative party's Bill 27 to
include the rest of all Ontarians in the application of that same 100%
unlock privilege that was afforded to those 61 MPP's of all
affiliations in 1999.

For our youth and children's sake, show them by example, how a true,
fair and equally applied democracy works.

Seniors and Retirees of Ontario, who were the builders of this great
province deserve the respect they've earned from this current
generation and all others to follow.
They deserve to live out the remaining years of their lives in a
dignified manner with the fruits of their labours in a manner of their
choosing and not that of a faceless beurarcracy.

They are watching and they are listening.

Mr. Tory, you have an enormous opportunity to show the people in
Ontario the true power of democracy by correcting a horrible selfish
act made by the former Conservative government by issuing a simple
unequivocal statement of full support. All without costing the taxpayer
a single dime!

Now that's a powerful gift sitting in the palm of your hand.


People Inform People
Time Tells All
Knowledge is Power

Sincerely,

Grant Fleury
Sudbury