Sunday, June 13, 2010

Canada's pension woes

There’s going to be an interesting discussion starting today in Prince Edward Island. Canada’s finance ministers are meeting there and the top item on the agenda is what to do about Canada’s pension situation. The option federal finance minister Jim Flaherty is proposing is to increase the premiums paid into the Canada Pension Plan as a safeguard against the needs of an increasingly aged population. Predictably, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business is opposed. CFIB President Catherine Swift says the proposal is disgusting. Of course, Swift has a well-paying job and has few worries about the future when she’s old and needs special care. The main concern is that people who earn between $30-80k are not able to save for their retirement and instead spend their income on “present” needs. My guess is that across the country, very few of us have been able to put much away for retirement, so the change to the CPP premiums may be the way to go. Many of our seniors live in desperate situations, trying to make ends meet with the OAP and GIS. They deserve better and by paying a few extra dollars now, we might not face the same situation down the road.

2 comments:

Wisewebwoman said...

Many conflicting reports coming out about CPP, Jim was saying only a short while ago that we had nothing to worry about and now we do?
The fact that we do makes a lot more sense to me with the huge hits both QPP and CPP have taken on returns.
XO
WWW

ViewPoint2010 said...

Just goes to show the lack of depth on the Harper bench. Flaherty talks a good line, as long as it's written by his staff; when he wanders off on his, he gets into trouble. They knew there was going to be controversy coming out of PEI if they tried to stay the course and so decided to do the politically expedient thing and join the flow. Let's just hope they don't tinker with it too much, a la UIC.