A good article with a couple of whopper misses: 1) civil servants are not the only workers who have had an income "freeze". Private sector workers with a flat income should not pay for civil servant pay and benefit increases. Civil servant pensions are secure, for an example of private sector workers see Nortel; 2) the five year return on the TSX masks the flatness of the index performance since the 2008 peak. The XIU was at $22.47 (?)  in June of 2008 versus 22.45 now. No capital gain there!