Archive for the ‘Social Security Debates’ Category
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Canada fails in its promise to end child poverty
Thursday, November 28th, 2013
… non-profit groups, and generous donors, can’t end poverty alone… a practical, nation-wide strategy to finally eliminate poverty… would need to include an affordable housing plan… boosting the minimum wage, increasing the Ontario Child Benefit, and delivering a much-needed $100-a-month increase for singles on welfare.
Tags: budget, child care, featured, housing, philanthropy, poverty, standard of living
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Improving CPP makes sense
Tuesday, November 12th, 2013
… the financial-services industry… charges among the highest management fees in the world, more than two per cent on average, which skims off 40 per cent of your savings over a lifetime. Why would the Fraser Institute continue to push this alternative? / All businesses… should embrace enhancements to the Canada Pension Plan. It’s not only good social policy, it’s good economic policy. That’s because businesses need consumers, and consumers need income. An enhanced CPP will provide just that.
Tags: economy, ideology, pensions, standard of living, tax
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An early look at what ‘Big CPP’ will look like
Sunday, November 10th, 2013
… any improvements will apply only to future service since an increase in existing benefits would not be fully funded for generations… The current CPP benefit is worth only 6% of pay but is costing us 9.9% into perpetuity because the previous generations did not pay enough… the CPP earnings ceiling, which tracks the national average wage, will be raised since the current ceiling of $51,100 is too low to capture much of the income of middle-income workers.
Tags: economy, ideology, pensions, standard of living
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Ignore the ‘job-killing’ mantra. It’s time to expand CPP benefits
Sunday, November 10th, 2013
Between 1997 and 2003 CPP premiums were hiked 70 per cent while the country’s employment rate rose strongly and steadily except for a slight dip with the 2001 economic downturn. In contrast, the premium rate hikes associated with most current proposals for CPP expansion would be only about 30 per cent. And unlike the earlier premium hikes, which were not associated with any improvements to CPP benefits, the proposed reforms would deliver large benefit increases.
Tags: economy, ideology, pensions, standard of living
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Enhancing the Canada Pension Plan – Myths & Facts
Monday, November 4th, 2013
Two-thirds of working Canadians – 12 million people – don’t have workplace pensions / $400,000 – is the average amount Baby Boomers are short of their individual retirement savings goal / 300,000 seniors live in poverty right now / 36% of Canadians stated a lack of confidence in their ability to save for retirement in 2011… The CPP is not run by government and it’s not a tax. CPP is an earned pension purchased by premiums paid equally by employee and employer.
Tags: economy, ideology, pensions, standard of living
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Strengthen Canada Pension Plan instead of creating Ontario version
Saturday, October 19th, 2013
Premier Kathleen Wynne is right… to push the issue of pension reform with federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, who so far has done nothing to address a clear and growing problem… benefits under the… Canada Pension Plan… are capped at $12,000 a year, far below the poverty line, which for many means a precarious old age… for the good of all, pensions should stay under the domain of Ottawa, which already has the systems in place to do the job properly… there’s no need to pay for such duplication.
Tags: economy, ideology, pensions, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | 1 Comment »
Bigger CPP would be better
Friday, October 18th, 2013
The Canada Pension Plan is one of the country’s great public policy successes. It’s national: If you change provinces, it moves with you. Same story if you change jobs. You’re covered even if you’re self-employed. It’s cheap compared with private savings options. It’s flexible: you can retire early or late, and how much you get out, come retirement, is determined by how much you put in while working… It has just one defect: it’s not ambitious enough. It’s just too small.
Tags: ideology, jurisdiction, pensions, standard of living
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Pensions for the poor, or why governments should focus reform efforts on those who have the least
Thursday, October 17th, 2013
The 2008-9 global financial crisis has resulted in several stresses that did not exist in the previous two decades. Low financial returns in the past five years have made difficult accumulating retirement wealth. Many defined benefit plans have become insolvent, requiring cash-constrained employers to fund deficits. Slow global economic growth has discouraged Canadian governments from increasing payroll taxes to fund any enhancement of the CPP in fear of hurting employment. Governments are in deficit.
Tags: ideology, jurisdiction, pensions, poverty, standard of living
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Ontario government has failed the poor, group says
Saturday, October 5th, 2013
In December 2008, the Ontario government announced a poverty reduction strategy with the target of reducing child poverty by 25 per cent in five years. That target has not been met… While initially the government implemented measures to reduce poverty such as introducing the Ontario Child Benefit allowance… over the last couple of years, the government has chosen to take the austerity path at the expense of Ontario’s poor.
Tags: budget, Health, homelessness, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | 1 Comment »
Proposed changes to CPP spur momentum for pension reform
Thursday, October 3rd, 2013
PEI Finance Minister Wes Sheridan is trying to rally his colleagues around changes that would see the maximum CPP contribution rise to $4,681.20 a year from $2,356.20 starting in 2016, and the maximum annual benefit would increase to $23,400 from $12,150… The overall goal is to boost the savings rates of middle-income Canadians who earn less than six figures… Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa praised PEI’s plan and said he will be pushing for action later this year.
Tags: economy, ideology, jurisdiction, pensions, standard of living
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