OTTAWA - The second federal budget bill has been released and the main target is pensions for MPs and the public sector.

The bill is 457 pages long and implements several measures from the spring budget including the plan to scale back the gold-plated retirement funds.

Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said beginning in 2016, MPs will have to start paying 50 per cent of the contributions to their pensions while taxpayers will foot the rest.

MPs will also have to wait until they are 65 to collect their retirement funds or face penaltie. The public sector retirement age is being pushed up from 60 to 65.

Flaherty said it’s a move to respect Canadians and their tax dollars.

“They exzpect us not to have any better pension plan than the public service has. And they expect the public service not to have any sign better pension plan than the people in the private sector have,” Flaherty said.

This budget bill will also extend the hiring tax credit for small businesses, in an efforet to create more jobs.
 
Opposition MPs are worried the government will try and hide some measures in this massive bill, that they just can’t support which is what led to a showdown in the spring.

Flaherty said there are no surprises, everything in the bill is in the budget.