By Doug Draper
Let the war on younger people continue.
Seniors pension reform details in Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's March 29 budget.
In case you haven’t yet caught the news through The Globe and Mail and CBC, Canada’s federal government, through its March 29 budget announcements, is planning to move ahead with its plans to “reform” the Old Age Security pension program by pushing ahead the age of eligibility from age 65 to 67.
Yet not to worry too much if you are already an OAS recipient or are a baby boomer approaching retirement. Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his finance minister Jim Flaherty must have heard the protest from some of you when he first floated the idea of making changes to OAS at an economic summit in Switzerland this winter. According to the reports from The Globe and CBC, the new age of eligibility “will be phased in over a number of years,” leaving the government some wiggle room depending on how much protest may come from people in their late 40s and 50s, at the younger end of the baby boomer spectrum.
However many baby boomers will still be able to start collecting the pension at age 65, there is no doubt that it will be younger people, once again, who will have to pay the price for their elders’ decades of racking up debt to a point that services boomers have taken for granted will be reduced or eliminated, or become far more costly (as post-secondary education already has) for them.
It is another chapter in what some economists and sociologists have been describing in recent times as “the war on youth” as baby boomer in particular continues to squander what is left of everything between core government services to the planet’s natural resources for themselves.
(Niagara At Large invites you to share your views on the Ontario budget with other NAL readers below. Remember that we only post views by individuals who also share their first and last names.)
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Some Background:
When Diefenbaker came into office in 1957, Canadians received OAS at age 70 (the age set by Bismarck in Prussia in 1870 … because very few would live to collect it, but it gave the appearance of a caring government.)
Diefenbaker’s government thought this was unfair to working people, and lowered it to age 65 … 1 year lower per year. My father & uncle were supporting their mother (b.1897) and looked forward to being able to redirect these resources to their children. In 1963, the year before Gran was to receive OAS … she ‘went home’.
Today:
Life expectancy has moved from ~72 years in ~1963 to ~82 years today. The Canadian government has had to find resources (taxes!) to pay pensions for an extra 10 years for a lot of retired people. Imagine if we live until 92 in another 50 years!
At the same time, we’re having fewer children later: my father was 27 when his first-born of 4 came to Earth; I was 37 with my first-born of 2. Most of my family & friends are the same. In fact, if Canada hadn’t encouraged immigration, we Boomers wouldn’t have anyone to care for us in nursing homes in the next 25-50 years. Japan is so ethno-centric that they are expected to decline from 120B people to 70B in the next 2 decades (little or no immigration). Similar demographics exist in parts of Europe.
As well, most retired people are healthier, often had lower-paid jobs, and find take full or part-time work in new careers or small businesses for financial or creative reasons.
The Future:
It seems obvious that we’ll have major economic problems in Canada if we don’t address our demographics Early. If we’re lucky, Harper & Flaherty will raise the OAS starting age by 1 month per year for 24 years, so that Canada avoids becoming a Greece. The Greeks are raising every tax & fee they can, and reducing government spending by cutting benefits & subsidies, laying off civil servants, raising pension ages, etc. ALL IN ONE YEAR!
And it’s still Not enough!
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There is a basic premise that there will be jobs, is very hazy, Ontario is shedding jobs faster than a dog sheds fleas, if there are no jobs now, where are the future jobs coming from? jobs don’t appear out of thin air,the Federal Government sent our high paying jobs to Mexico, China and India. there is nothing in this budget that any body can hang a hat on,,.except they expect people to retire later on in life, when I sold life insurance the mortality rates increase substantialy after 60 years of age and how does one tell the government not to steal, rob and borrow the funds for old age pensions, they stole billions out of the UIC to balance the budget Jean Chretien et al.So we already have a precedant for looting taxpayers money.by the Federal Government.
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Most young people do not have a company pension, nor will they, as well most will not earn enough to have money left over to set aside anywhere for retirement. This federal government will leave a legacy of a generation of poor elders.
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