Here is a deal: You set aside a dollar for your retirement and, in return, Canadian taxpayers will give you $23.30 to supplement that nest egg. When you turn 55, you can begin collecting this pension, provided you have worked for six years.

It might sound like fantasy, but it is not. This is the gold-plated pension plan enjoyed by members of Parliament. MPs earn a base salary of $157,731 a year but, according to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, the annual contribution to their parliamentary pension fund adds up to $248,000 a year.

At a time when many Canadians have no pension plans at all, and those who do are seeing them eroded, the sweet pension deal enjoyed by MPs at the expense of taxpayers is a colossal embarrassment and should quickly be reformed.

In case MPs haven not got the message that they need to lead by example when it comes to pensions, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and the C.D. Howe Institute are there to reminded them.

Gregory Thomas of the CTF put it succinctly: “This is a ripoff on a massive scale.

It certainly is unbecoming for federal politicians to have a pension plan that is outside the stratosphere of what any ordinary Canadian — the very person whose taxes pay for the parliamentary pension plans could even dream of.

Not only that, but it is, in some ways, a fantasy pension plan. With essentially no assets set aside to pay future benefits, according to the C.D. Howe Institute, it has a deficit as high as $1 billion. Which also falls to taxpayers.

This plan subjects taxpayers to financial risks few appreciate, and undermines the federal government"s authority to lead Canada"s search for a better retirement income system, says a C.D. Howe institute report.

The institute also argues that since MP pensions represent a hidden salary, that pension reform must take place, but MPs should be compensated for the loss in actual income. That will be a tough sell, the institute rightly notes.

It is important that politicians are adequately compensated in order to attract high quality candidates to the job. However, anyone seeking office simply because of the pension plan should probably be ruled out anyway. How would one know this.?

It is encouraging to see signs that some MPs, notably richer members of the Conservative caucus, are getting the message about how the public views their pension plan.