{"id":11062,"date":"2015-06-17T19:08:03","date_gmt":"2015-06-17T23:08:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=11062"},"modified":"2015-06-17T19:08:03","modified_gmt":"2015-06-17T23:08:03","slug":"canadians-face-retirement-income-crisis-liberal-critic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/canadians-face-retirement-income-crisis-liberal-critic\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadians face \u201cretirement income crisis\u201d: Liberal critic"},"content":{"rendered":"

More and more Canadians are worried about their retirement, yet Stephen Harper is offering them little more than lip-service for the problem.
\nA new CIBC report shows that millions of Canadians face a \u201csteep decline in living standards\u201d in retirement. Personal debt in Canada is at a record high. Meanwhile, three-quarters of private sector workers don\u2019t have a workplace pension plan. The average 35-year-old puts aside less than half of what their parents did at the same age. On average, baby boomers\u2019 retirement savings are short $400,000.
\nIf we don\u2019t find a solution to this problem now, Canadians will pay with higher costs later on.
\nInstead of helping, Mr. Harper has made things worse. He eliminated Income Trusts, destroying about $25-billion in value from Canadians\u2019 savings. He also broke his word by delaying Old Age Security and the Guaranteed Income Supplement until the age of 67, taking over $30,000 away from each vulnerable senior.
\nHis only \u201csolutions\u201d have been a collection of tax breaks for wealthier households. None of these changes have helped ease the pending crisis for Canadians anxious about their future.
\nWhat we need is a modest, phased-in expansion of the Canada Pension Plan (CPP).
\nThe CPP, along with the Quebec Pension Plan, is a defined-benefit pension plan that covers every Canadian worker, in every job, in every province. Actuaries have declared it sound for 75 years\u2014the furthest they will go for any plan. But its benefits are too low. The average CPP monthly benefit is only about $640.
\nMr. Harper has blocked every effort from the provinces to enhance the CPP. His infamous \u201cfirewall\u201d letter even called on Alberta to withdraw from the pension plan entirely. Now, on the eve of an election, he\u2019s promising a study on changes to the CPP. But a study won\u2019t protect Canadians in their golden years.
\nCanadians work hard. They deserve a pension plan that they can depend on for a dignified retirement.
\nLiberals are committed to working with the provinces and territories to expand the CPP and lift the retirement savings of all Canadians.
\nA Liberal government will also restore the starting age for OAS and GIS to 65.
\n
\nScott Brison, MP
\nLiberal Finance Critic<\/strong><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More and more Canadians are worried about their retirement, yet Stephen Harper is offering them little more than lip-service for the problem. A new CIBC report shows that millions of Canadians face a \u201csteep decline in living standards\u201d in retirement. Personal debt in Canada is at a record high. Meanwhile, three-quarters of private sector workers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-letters-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-2Sq","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-21 04:07:14","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11062\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}