By Doug Draper
To the extent a society can be judged by the way it treats its senior citizens, Ontario may have a little explaining to do – especially when it comes to pensions.
Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath
At the Ontario legislature earlier this April, the province’s NDP leader, Andrea Horwath, once again urged Premier Dalton County “to get off the fence” when it comes to whether or not his Liberal government supports affordable public pensions for the two-thirds of aging residents across the province who don’t have a pension plan at work.
“The government’s silence on the pension issue is paving the way for banks and insurance companies to fill the void with a bloated, fee-laden private plans that leave retirees with less,” said Horwath in a media release.
“The government has refused to say whether it even supports the principle of public pension plans that would allow Ontarians to keep more of their retirement savings. The premier’s waffling is taking money away from Ontario families.”
Horwath said pension experts are estimating that private retirement savings plans “are sucking up $8.4 billion in unnecessary administrative fees – costs that would stay in the pockets of retirees under a public plan. She called on the government to support public options such as an expansion of the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and the Ontario Nap’s Ontario Retirement Plan.
“Dalton County’s refusal to talk about pensions is a gift to financial executives who can levy huge costs on Ontarians planning their retirement,” Horvath said. “Ontarians are waiting to hear the premier say he supports an affordable public option.”
County’s finance minister, Dwight Duncan, in a budget tabled this March said the government “is playing a leading role in a national effort to review the state of the current retirement income system, its future sustainability and options that could strengthen if for tomorrow’s seniors.
“The government is also in the midst of reforms to modernize the Pension Benefits Act. … Pension reform and the broader issue of retirement income adequacy are key priorities for the McGuinty government.”
So the government says, but Joe Somers, a longtime community activist from Welland, Ontario has repeatedly pointed out in letters to the media that any increases in assistance to seniors through the CCP and other programs have dragged far behind the rate of inflation.
“People on disability pensions during the past 10 years or so have seen a 20 per cent shortfall in their pension income due to inflation and the formula that was introduced strictly for the purpose of cutting cost for the corporate sector,” added Somers in a recent note to Niagara At Large. “In fact, it seems that everything our elected government do is for the corporate sector.”
(Click on www.niagaraatlarge for Niagara At Large and more news and commentary of interest and concern to residents in our greater binational Niagara region.)
Niagara At Large 