The Harper government has failed Canada’s seniors and future pensioners by breaking their promise to make pension reform a priority and putting off discussions with the provincial and territorial governments until next May, said Liberal Seniors and Pensions Critic Judy Sgro and Finance Critic John McCallum.
“In the budget last January, the Conservatives claimed that pension reform was a priority and that given the ‘importance’ of the issue the government would ‘accelerate its timeline so that consultations will be completed within 90 days’ (Budget Plan 2009, p. 90),” said Mr. McCallum.
“Now they’re saying they will study the issue until next May. At that point their consultations will have dragged on for 490 days – not the 90 days they promised. Clearly fixing pensions is not a priority for this government,” he added.
“The Conservatives don’t seem to understand how serious the problem is,” added Ms. Sgro, noting that 1.6 million seniors in Canada are already living on less than $15,000 annually and that by 2020, one in five Canadians will be over age 65.
“We need to act quickly. We don’t have much time to reform the system before a large cohort of seniors reaches retirement age,” she said. “And we know that many pensioners will be struggling to finance a secure retirement, especially those with middle and modest incomes.”
Liberals have called for three specific pensions reforms that will make saving for retirement easier and more secure:
- a Supplementary Canada Pension Plan (SCPP) to give Canadians the option of saving more for retirement;
- allowing employees with stranded or abandoned pensions following bankruptcy the option of growing their pension assets through the Canada Pension Plan; and
- protecting vulnerable Canadians on long-term disability by giving them preferred status as creditors in bankruptcy.
“The solutions are there. What we need is a federal government willing to act now and move forward on the reforms Canadians – and several provinces – have been asking for,” added Mr. McCallum. “It seems that sadly, the Conservative government’s commitment to seniors is just one more broken promise.”
