“They are not that kind of government. They don’t like big national vision,” he said. “But they are very practical.”
For that reason, he said, Ottawa will eventually pitch in, agreeing to do such things as allowing payroll deduction for any new system to be made through the same mechanism as CPP deductions and making other regulatory and legal changes that would be needed.
The push to look for ways to help Canadians enhance their retirement incomes is fuelled by last year’s market meltdown, the toll corporate bankruptcies are taking on company pension benefits, and studies showing that millions of Canadians are not putting enough aside to finance a comfortable retirement.
Ambachtsheer says people accustomed to living on $50,000 or more a year, but whose retirement savings are minimal, cannot have the comfortable retirement they envisioned on CPP and OAS payments that, under the current maximum, add up to $17,109 for individuals.
Keywords: pension reform
