Tootoo also opted out of supplementary pension plan

In your story of June 6, “MLA pension plan turns into get-rich-quick scheme,” you remind readers that MLAs Paul Okalik, Ed Picco, and Rebekah Williams have opted out of the supplementary retiring allowances plan that was established by the Legislative Assembly in 2002.

I would like to clarify for the record that I also opted out of the plan shortly after it was established.

You will recall that Nunatsiaq News provided extensive coverage of the debate in the House when the plan was introduced. During that debate, I voted against the bill that brought in the plan, and spoke out against it during consideration of the bill in Committee of the Whole on March 5, 2002. I certainly never joined the plan.

As you pointed out in your story of June 6, Bill 39, which was passed last week, includes a provision that requires the Speaker to table the names of members who have opted into the plan. This is a transparent measure which I argued for during our debate last year.

Hunter Tootoo
MLA, Iqaluit Centre