Rae argues retirement benefit cuts a massive hit to Canadians

Posted on April 12, 2012 in Social Security Debates

Source: — Authors:

SWBooster.com – Opinion/Letters
Published on April 3, 2012.   Bob Rae

Editor:

Are you prepared to give up $13,000 during your golden years? MP David Anderson and Prime Minister Stephen Harper think you are. That’s what the average Canadian will have to give up thanks to the federal budget introduced by the Conservative Party last week.

The Budget cuts retirement benefits by raising the age of eligibility for Old Age Security and the Guaranteed Income Supplement from 65 to 67 years, forcing Canadians to postpone their retirement for two years. For low income seniors it’s even worse. They stand to lose up to $30,000 which could hike seniors’ poverty by up third.

It’s a massive hit to the least-well off. It’s mean-spirited and it’s wrong.

The Conservatives offered zero financial analysis to justify the cut because there is none. The OECD, the Parliamentary Budget Officer and other leading experts have all confirmed that Canada does not face a pension crisis.

The Conservatives are also using the Budget making deep ideological cuts. They are cutting $310 million from Agriculture and Agri-Food, threatening farm risk management programs that have seen family farms through flood, drought and disease. They are cutting $166 million from Aboriginal Affairs, reducing funding for the fastest growing and most impoverished group in the country.

How skewed are these priorities? Take a look at what the government is not cutting: polls, advertising, bigger jails and stealth fighters.

Canadians should be asking Stephen Harper and David Anderson how they can justify such a small-minded Canada.

Bob Rae – Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada

< http://www.swbooster.com/Opinion/Letters%20to%20the%20editor/2012-04-03/article-2946514/Rae-argues-retirement-benefits-cuts-a-massive-hit-to-Canadians/1 >

Tags: , , , ,

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 12th, 2012 at 11:44 am and is filed under Social Security Debates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

6 Responses to “Rae argues retirement benefit cuts a massive hit to Canadians”

  1. kuponki says:

    kuponki…

    […]Rae argues retirement benefit cuts a massive hit to Canadians « Social Policy in Ontario[…]…

  2. Find your literary expression is really interesting is very good!Thank you for so overnice post.Miss you very much and a new article!

  3. La vie a été très simple, mais nous avons aussi ne pouvait pas l’aider à devenir très compliqué.

  4. Je préfère traiter avec des lignes parallèles ne se croisent jamais, cependant, a été la mer à garder belle. Parce que si – une fois se croisent, après ce point sera plus éloignés.

  5. Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.

  6. I’d rather and you are parallel lines, forever won’t intersect, but could have been facing keeps good. Because if – denier, that points intersect the farther the away.

|

Leave a Reply