Posts Tagged ‘pensions’
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Feds to step in with pension plan reforms
Monday, December 27th, 2010
Dec. 26, 2010
Ottawa is planning changes to company pension plan rules that fall under federal jurisdiction in a bid to help the plans weather short-term downturns and better protect workers…. The proposal would require a plan sponsor to fully fund pension plan benefits when a plan is terminated and allow sponsors, plan members, and retirees of a plan in trouble to negotiate a plan restructuring… the Superintendent of Financial Institutions estimated that 83% of all defined benefit pension plans that fell under federal jurisdiction were underfunded with estimated liabilities exceeding assets.
Tags: pensions, standard of living, tax
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
The right kind of pension reform
Thursday, December 23rd, 2010
Dec. 22, 2010
Increasing CPP contributions… is the stick, forcing Canadians to save, but via the heavy hand of the state. Providing investment vehicles to incentivize savings, such as the Tax Free Savings Account and the new PRPP, is the carrot. Like us, the Tories appear to prefer the carrot-based approach, which respects the ethos of personal responsibility and choice.
Tags: ideology, pensions, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
The big winner at Kananaskis: Little Canada
Wednesday, December 22nd, 2010
Dec. 22, 2010
Strong countries have one regulator, of course, but in our kingdom of principalities, four provinces – Alberta, Quebec, Manitoba and Saskatchewan – oppose the creation of something national… So we will wait for the Supreme Court hearing, in which the interests of the whole country will be pitted against those of some of its constituent parts. Big Canada needs an effective internal economic market, given the ferocity of external competition… The Alberta-Quebec alliance at the core of the opposition to a national securities regulator also scuttled expansion of the Canada Pension Plan at Kananaskis.
Tags: ideology, pensions, privatization, rights, standard of living
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Let’s take the CPP – and be creative
Wednesday, December 22nd, 2010
Dec. 22, 2010
… we should develop a second tier of the CPP that should apply to earnings over $25,000 and extend beyond the current ceiling of $47,300. Tier 2 should only be compulsory – or feature automatic participation with the right to opt out – for those employees not already belonging to a workplace pension plan that meets some minimum standards. Virtually all proponents of pension reform want reforms to be fully funded… until the fate of the CPP is clearer, it will be hard to advise Canadians on whether participation in a PRPP makes sense.
Tags: pensions, rights, standard of living, tax
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Ontario urged to take on silencing lawsuits
Wednesday, December 22nd, 2010
Dec. 22, 2010
The Ontario government should crack down on lawsuits filed by developers or corporations that are designed to silence opposition from activists or the public, a blue-ribbon panel of legal experts says… The recommendations for Ontario Attorney-General Chris Bentley, released to Tuesday, say the province should follow in the footsteps of Quebec and about half of the states in the U.S. and craft anti-SLAPP legislation. Under the recommendations, the proposed law would protect “all communications on matters of public interest.”
Tags: ideology, pensions, rights
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Public option best strategy to buttress pension system
Wednesday, December 22nd, 2010
Dec 22 2010
The CPP… both lowers the costs to the individual saver as well as reducing the individual’s risk. It should also be noted that the present level of CPP payments is considered inadequate by any serious analysis… Higher RRSP contributions would mean a tax-expenditure or a subsidy to savers. But such a subsidy would be paid for by the general taxpayer and the largest benefits would go to those in the highest income tax brackets… increased RRSP contributions will make the financial institutions better off, while an increase in CPP contributions will make Canadian pensioners better off.
Tags: budget, pensions, standard of living, tax
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
We don’t really know (private vs public pensions)
Wednesday, December 22nd, 2010
Dec. 21, 2010
Only two major OECD countries, France and Germany, have pension systems that give their average retiree a higher percentage of average pre-retirement disposable income… Moreover, it is by no means clear that Canadians will now lack sufficient retirement income to live independently and with dignity. Poverty among Canadian seniors is among the lowest in the OECD, so our retirement system is not failing the least well off. And the wealthy are generally retiring comfortably. So if there’s a problem, it lies in the middle.
Tags: pensions, privatization, standard of living, tax
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
CPP reforms: Still alive, but on life support
Tuesday, December 21st, 2010
Dec 21 2010
The financial meltdown of 2008-9 has provided the impetus for CPP reform. By gravely undermining the value of corporate pension plans and individual RRSPs, the meltdown underscored the need for a stronger public alternative. It also accelerated the move by corporations away from defined benefit and toward defined contribution plans, which promise less for workers upon retirement… Given that the CPP is both portable and solvent, that seemed a better option than trying to squeeze more out of private sector plans. And the country’s finance ministers bought into the idea last summer.
Tags: ideology, pensions, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Sensible advice for waste-cutting Prime Minister [pension supplements]
Monday, December 20th, 2010
Dec 20 2010
… eliminating the application process for the low-income pension supplement would be… a huge efficiency gain… Thousands of needy seniors miss out on this benefit because they don’t apply. Some don’t realize they have to. Some can’t handle the paperwork because of language or literacy problems. Some are disabled by dementia or illness… The government saves millions of dollars every year by quietly ignoring the fact that many impoverished seniors aren’t receiving the pension top-up to which they are entitled.
Tags: budget, disabilities, pensions, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion Delivery System | No Comments »
Pensions need reform, not more bickering
Monday, December 20th, 2010
Dec. 20, 2010
There are good reasons to support a supplement to the CPP… But if participation in a supplementary CPP is voluntary, new enrolment may be slow. And the brunt of the burden of the payroll tax increase needed to create a supplementary CPP would be paid by working Canadians with low and moderate incomes… but the federal idea of pooled plans will, by being run through employers who can easily connect with their staff, likely create more actual savers.
Tags: ideology, pensions, privatization, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Delivery System | No Comments »
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