Posts Tagged ‘pensions’
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Pension shift puts decades of progress at risk
Tuesday, October 22nd, 2013
By almost any measure, our defined-benefit pensions, which guarantee a continuing benefit on retirement that is based on a percentage of employee earnings for each year of service, are the most effective retirement savings system in the country… This is not a zero sum game where one group benefits at the expense of the other… Canada’s public pension funds offer financial security to millions of Canadian retirees while providing a major source of patient, long-term capital that funds vital infrastructure projects…
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, pensions, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | No Comments »
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
Posted in Social Security Debates | 1 Comment »
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
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
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
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Screwing veterans to balance the books
Thursday, October 3rd, 2013
Under the new charter, these lifetime support payments were replaced with one-time lump sum payments, up to a maximum of $250,000. Programs to help veterans retrain for civilian life or get an education were also launched. It hasn’t worked out. Injured veterans of recent operations, most notably the war in Afghanistan, are measurably worst off than they would have been under the old system.
Tags: budget, disabilities, Health, mental Health, pensions, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | No Comments »
Society can afford to care for least fortunate
Tuesday, September 24th, 2013
Canada has a guaranteed income for seniors and Ontario tops it up further. At the moment the annual payment is $16,542 for singles and $27,050 for couples. A single person on Ontario Disability Support Payments gets $10,584, a couple $14,268. Whether the right number is $16,500 or $20,000 can be debated, but a simple guaranteed income for the disabled is the minimum requirement for a social safety net in a wealthy society.
Tags: budget, disabilities, ideology, mental Health, pensions, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | No Comments »
The Conservatives’ economic stability message becoming a myth
Friday, September 13th, 2013
In Harper’s Canada, more than four in 10 of us live paycheque to paycheque. Almost half of us over 50 have barely one-quarter of what we will need for our retirement… wealth is the domain of middle-aged white men, but if you are a visible minority or an aboriginal working full time you are earning well below the national median income. We’re working longer — four in 10 of us are still working at age 66.
Tags: economy, ideology, pensions, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
How New Brunswick became a pension trailblazer
Wednesday, August 21st, 2013
Canada’s third-smallest province is a North American leader in pension reform. A year ago, it introduced an innovative retirement plan that guarantees its public employees a secure pension but makes allowances for market conditions. It takes into account the increased life expectancy of retirees. And it has the backing of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, jurisdiction, pensions, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | No Comments »
With unavoidable costs looming, it’s time to re-examine seniors’ expendable perks
Tuesday, August 20th, 2013
… Public policies in Canada already go some distance to help people “age in place,” but the idea of keeping seniors in their “own” homes is often interpreted to mean staying in their “old” home. And I don’t think this makes sense… “They don’t engage with their contemporaries, because their contemporaries have either died or are in a condo or a care home.”
Tags: budget, housing, ideology, pensions, poverty, tax
Posted in Social Security Debates | 1 Comment »
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