A Message from the President Moses Znaimer
WANDA MORRIS, CARP’s COO and VP of advocacy is away, so on her behalf, here is our report for September 2016.
After years of fruitless back and forth, the federal government and most of the provinces have agreed to a modest increase to the Canada Pension Plan. This move recognizes the good news, generally speaking, that we’re all living longer but also the bad news that many of us are not financially equipped to deal with all those “extra” years.
What made it all go this time – credit where credit is due – was the rare political love affair between the Liberals in Ottawa and the Liberals in Ontario. And in announcing THE AGREEMENT to enhance the Canada Pension Plan represents nearly eight years of hard-fought advocacy for CARP. The problems are as real now as they were when CARP began this process: Canadians aren’t saving enough for retirement, and too many seniors are living in poverty.
To CARP, a solution to both issues seemed clear enough. The CPP works well, but it needs to be expanded and enhanced. So began a process their determination to go ahead with a new Ontario Pension Plan absent a national response, Premier Kathleen Wynne and Finance Minister Charles Sousa presented a challenge powerful enough, and a threat credible enough, to motivate the others to act.
CARP has been advocating this necessary expansion in CPP coverage for many years (see history below), but that this reform will be phased in over a fairly long period of time should put paid to the charge, too often levied against our demographic, that we are greedy and selfish. The benefits of an improved safety-net pension that seeks to replace a third of one’s income (up to $82,700) versus a quarter (up to $54,900), which is the of building support, allies and a strong case for reform. Highlights
March 2010 CARP joins groups like the Canadian Labour Congress at a pension summit in 2010 featuring prominent Canadian lawmakers including Canada’s then-Finance Minister Jim Flaherty.
October 2013 P.E.I. Finance Minister Wes Sheridan – a strong advocate for CPP – visits CARP to present a compelling and case now, will accrue not to us but to today’s young people, the gen-Xers and millennials and all the generations beyond.
As we’ve said time and time again, young and old, left, right and in between, we are all related to and care for each other, so CARP stands firmly for solidarity between the generations.
Going forward, we will likely have to deal yet again with the government’s one-step-forward-twosteps-back approach to medical assistance in dying. The B.C. Civil Liberties Association has launched a court challenge on behalf of Julia Lamb, which highlights the need for and importance of advance directives, a form of insurance against future incapacity and unending suffering, which the vast majority of CARP members wholeheartedly support. We are seriously but carefully considering joining this challenge. More on all that next month.
Till then, bye for now!
detailed argument for the need for CPP enhancement.
2013 CARP holds a joint news conference with the premier and minister of finance of Ontario where the Ontario government commits to push the federal government for meaningful pension reforms at the upcoming finance ministers meeting.
May 2016 Wanda Morris, CARP’s VP of advocacy, speaks before the Ontario Legislature’s Standing Committee on Social Policy to urge the government members to use their influence and leverage to push for a Canada-wide pension plan.
May 2016 Members of CARP’s advocacy team meet with Ontario’s minister of finance to insist that, despite the government’s intent to create an Ontarioonly pension plan, they still have an obligation to all Canadians and must be a leader on the national stage at the June meeting of finance ministers.