Feeling used today?

In a sitting dominated by double-talk, moral cowardice and a variety of petty idiocies, Nunavut MLAs have done us all a great service over the past two and a half weeks.

More effectively than ever before, they’ve revealed who among them deserves to be thrown out of office in the next election, which, we hope, will be called as early as possible — in the fall of 2003, if not sooner.

Unfortunately, any MLA who quits at the end of this assembly, or who ends being defeated, will not now have to pay the full price for his or her incompetence.

That’s because they’ve now created two new ways of gouging the public even after they no longer hold public office: a new severance pay provision, called the “transition allowance;” and a new supplementary pension plan likely to cost the government of Nunavut an extra two to three million dollars over the four-year life of this assembly.

The transition allowance is not unreasonable. It provides departed MLAs with a form of severance pay that is roughly equivalent to what is available to territorial government employees who resign from their jobs.

Even those MLAs who spend their four-year terms boozing, screwing around and making fools of themselves every time they open their mouths in public should be legally entitled to some form of severance. Arguably, it’s a fair price to pay for getting rid of them.

But to allow MLAs to also collect a newly-beefed up pension after only one four-year term verges on an abuse of the public trust. For every dollar of his or own that a member contributes to the pension fund, the government will have to contribute at least five dollars, or more. That was a finding of a commission on MLA compensation that reported to the GNWT in 1996.

It’s no wonder MLAs kept their pension discussions secret for nearly a year. The idea is an insult to the intelligence of Nunavummiut, who have been told repeatedly by the same group of legislators that there is not enough money for a long list of human needs in Nunavut.

The small group of protestors who stood outside the assembly building at noon on March 5 displayed a greater sense of public responsibility and respect for democracy than the sad little band of idiots who met inside that day.

The four MLAs who had the good sense to either vote against the supplementary pension plan or to opt out of it are: Hunter Tootoo, Paul Okalik, Ed Picco and Rebekah Uqi Williams. Remember their names.

All other MLAs supported the plan, and 14 voted for it. Above all, remember their names too — and make sure you use this information against them if they’re foolish enough to put their names forward in the next election.

JB