Posts Tagged ‘pensions’
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Monday, December 12th, 2016
Ottawa recently introduced proposed changes that would amend federal pension laws to permit federally regulated employers to provide a pension plan with a target-benefit design… the proposed changes would make it easier for employers to offer another registered pension option beyond the usual defined-benefit (DB) or defined-contribution (DC) models.
Tags: economy, participation, pensions, standard of living, youth
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | No Comments »
Monday, October 10th, 2016
Acknowledging that modern free trade produces losers as well as winners allows us to start developing and implementing policies to moderate those downsides – and purposely share the upsides. This means actively managing trade flows, limiting beggar-thy-neighbour trade surpluses, supporting incomes for all workers, ensuring sensible and fair exchange rates, and actively fostering domestic investment in desirable, trade-intensive industries.
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, ideology, participation, pensions, poverty, standard of living
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Sunday, October 2nd, 2016
In China, farmers whose land has been turned into factories are making more steel than the world needs. In America, idled steelworkers are contemplating how to live off the land… Trade deals, immigrant labor, automation: As Mr. Arkenbout sees it, these are all just instruments wielded in pursuit of the same goal — paying him less so corporations can keep more. “When they don’t need me anymore,” he said, “I’m nothing.”
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, ideology, immigration, participation, pensions, poverty, privatization, standard of living
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Friday, September 23rd, 2016
The whole “crisis” really centred around a subgroup of a subgroup: those middle-class Canadians without workplace pensions who were supposedly failing to save enough in RRSPs and other vehicles to keep their existing lifestyle after retirement… Before the CPP enhancements, 11.4 per cent of middle-class Canadians were over-prepared for retirement. Now, more than 16 per cent will be over-prepared…
Tags: ideology, participation, pensions, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | 5 Comments »
Sunday, August 14th, 2016
The main fiscal problem with OAS is that its cost is projected to grow faster than the economy – and therefore faster than tax revenues – as a consequence of the baby boom. This will make balancing the books in the future that much more difficult. If tax rates do not increase, then the growth of other federal expenditures will need to be kept in check – including social, health and infrastructure transfers to provincial governments.
Tags: budget, ideology, pensions, standard of living
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Wednesday, August 10th, 2016
The Liberal government reversed a policy to raise the eligibility age for Old Age Security to 67 in spite of arguments from bureaucrats that the move would be bucking a trend among developed countries. Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Britain and the United States are among the countries that plan to raise their equivalent pension ages to 67 or higher… The government has not yet produced a report outlining the long-term fiscal consequences of its recent policy changes, but it has promised to release one later this year.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, participation, pensions
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Thursday, June 30th, 2016
… details of the promised changes are as yet unknown… Another aspect of the CPP affecting low-wage earners is the continued freeze of the minimum contribution – at $3,500 since 1996. It now amounts to only about $2,400 (in constant 2016 dollars). But if it had been indexed to the cost of living, this year it would come to $5,100. We question why the minimum contribution should be frozen when all other aspects of the CPP are indexed to real wages or the Consumer Price Index.
Tags: economy, ideology, pensions, poverty, standard of living, tax
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | No Comments »
Wednesday, June 22nd, 2016
… fewer than six in 10 Canadians voluntarily contributed to a retirement savings plan in 2014, and even those, on average, invested a paltry $3,700. During the same time, just one in 10 put away the maximum $5,500 in a tax-free savings account. The failure of these solutions confirmed that the best way to forestall the looming retirement income crisis was an expanded mandatory pension program… the new deal, achieved through the leadership of a more co-operative federal government, seems to have obviated the need for the provincial program.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, pensions
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | No Comments »
Wednesday, June 22nd, 2016
… under the new scheme, at maturity, a Canadian earning slightly less — $50,000 in constant earnings throughout a working life — would receive a yearly pension of $16,000. That compares with the current maximum of $12,000 at that income level. Bear in mind that “at maturity” is a euphemism for about 40 years of work. And few people get the maximum. The average CPP pension is about 60 per cent of the maximum amount… Who benefits most? Young people and those in mid-career.
Tags: economy, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, pensions, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | 6 Comments »
Wednesday, June 22nd, 2016
It mollifies recalcitrant provinces, such as Saskatchewan, by postponing the full cost of CPP improvements for almost a decade. It appeals to business groups because it kills Ontario’s plan to go it alone on the pension front. It wins kudos from labour because it substantively increases the payout to retirees… no one will be getting rich on the CPP. The new scheme does, however, promise to make it somewhat easier for those currently in their 20s and 30s to eventually stop working when they get old.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, pensions
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | No Comments »
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