MEDIA AVAILABILITY: to comment on Ontario Pension Plan anticipated in Budget 2014

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 28, 2014

CARP anticipates Ontario Pension Plan to help provide a decent retirement for all Ontarians: Ontario Budget 2014

Toronto, ON: CARP members look forward to the leadership of Ontario in proposing a province wide pension plan to allow Ontarians to better save for their retirement. CARP calls on the other provinces to provide similar plans to provide access for all Canadians

It is anticipated that Ontario Budget 2014 will include a proposal for a province wide supplementary pension plan.

CARP will be in the Stakeholder Lockup on Thursday, May 1st and will be available for comment afterwards:

Michael Nicin
Director of Policy attending Lock up and available in Toronto
[email protected]

Susan Eng
Vice President, Advocacy in Edmonton, AB
[email protected]

Sarah Park
Media Relations, Policy Researcher and Coordinator in Edmonton, AB
[email protected]

Call 416-607-2475 to arrange.

Two-thirds of working Canadians do not have a workplace pension plan and few other options to adequately save for their retirement. A significant proportion of middle income Canadians are not saving enough to maintain their standard of living in retirement and need to start saving immediately a caution reinforced by the former Governor of the Bank of Canada, David Dodge in his recent paper Macroeconomic Aspects of Retirement Savings

The federal, provincial and territorial finance ministers failed to get federal agreement to a modest increase to the CPP at their December 2014 meeting. That would have been a welcome step in the right direction to providing access to a national supplementary pension plan.

Any new pension scheme should be available to all Canadian workers regardless of where they live and pension benefits should be portable among workplaces across Canada. This may be achievable if all provinces follow the lead of Ontario, Manitoba and Prince Edward Island in enacting parallel legislation with reciprocal provisions.

CARP has called for a Universal Pension Plan, modelled on the CPP, but not necessarily part of the CPP, with key features to provide for an adequate retirement income including payroll deductions, mandatory enrolment and contributions, professional management and a governance board independent of government and the employers, on which employees interests are represented, and designed to provide an adequate and predictable retirement benefit.

The Pooled Registered Pension Plans (PRPPs) proposed by the federal government acknowledge that Canadians are not saving enough but have been criticized by pension experts and CARP members as not being up to the task of  providing an adequate pension. In any event, provincial enabling legislation is not yet in place across Canada.

CARP is a national, non-partisan, non-profit organization committed to advocating for a New Vision of Aging for Canada, social change that will bring financial security, equitable access to health care and freedom from discrimination. CARP seeks to ensure that the marketplace serves the needs and expectations of our generation and provides value-added benefits, products and services to our members. Through our network of chapters across Canada, CARP is dedicated to building a sense of community and shared values among our members in support of CARPs mission.

For further information, please contact:

Sarah Park   416.607.2471
Media Relations, Policy Researcher and Coordinator
[email protected]

Michael Nicin   416.607.2479
Director of Policy
[email protected]

Siobhan MacLean 416.607.2475
Media and Communications Coordinator
[email protected]

 

for

Susan Eng
Vice President, Advocacy
[email protected]

CARP, A New Vision of Aging for Canada or visit our website: www.carp.ca