In response to media coverage of jailed serial killer Clifford Olson’s Old Age Security (OAS) payments, the federal government is set to introduce legislation that would halt low-income supplements for all prisoners aged 65 or older.
Olson, 70, currently receives $1,100 a month in payments under the OAS and Guaranteed Income Supplement. He is serving 11 consecutive life sentences in a Quebec federal penitentiary for the murder of 11 children in British Columbia that he committed in the early 1980s.
The issue was taken up by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF), which recently delivered a 46,000-signature petition on the government’s doorstep calling for an end to income supplements for imprisoned seniors. The CTF estimates the government could save up to $14 million annually by cutting off the benefits of 938 inmates.
According to media reports, the legislation will also seek to end benefits for inmates serving sentences of less than two years in provincial jails.
Human Resources Minister Diane Finley has been receptive to the CTF’s campaign after it was reported that Prime Minister Stephen Harper ordered that the prisoner benefit arrangement be “rectified.”
To comment on this story, contact us.