Okanagan-Shuswap MP Gets Ten Times Normal Amount of Mail Mayes says constituents opposed to private members' bill on OAP

Kate Bouey 11/29/2010 105.7 SUNFM

---

Okanagan-Shuswap M-P Colin Mayes says his office has been deluged with mail and e-mail from constituents opposed to a bill that would offer Old Age Security to immigrants after three years in Canada. Under the current law, people must live here ten years to receive a pension. Mayes says more than two-thousand people have contacted his office to express their opposition to the Liberal private member's bill. He says the the response from constituents, to his recent pamphlet on the proposed bill, is ten times higher than the usual volume. The M-P says he feels the same way. ``As far as a benefit like this, I believe that as Canadians we pay into these benefits during our working life. I just feel the people who have contributed to those benefits are the ones who should benefit by them,'' Mayes told SUN FM.  Mayes says the Conservative government will not support the bill. He says eleven people wrote in in support of the idea.