Heads in the sand on OAS
Re Seniors benefits sustainable, says budget
watchdog, Feb. 9 Finance Minister Jim Flaherty was quick to dismiss the recent prognostications of OAS fiscal health made by Kevin Page, Canada’s parliamentary budget officer. Was this the same Jim Flaherty who for the first eight months of 2008 repeatedly denied Canada was in a recession, insisting there was no recession, no deficit and that the budget would balance? Could it also be the same Jim Flaherty who, suddenly realizing there was, indeed, a recession, tried unsuccessfully on multiple occasions to accurately estimate the coming deficit, arriving finally after months of incorrect guesses at a final figure of $56 billion, the largest in the history of Canada? The Conservatives need to pull their heads out of their ideological sand, beginning with the OAS. Edward Carson, Toronto I’m sure that behind Stephen Harper’s seemingly fumbled “announcement” of the need to review the sustainability of the OAS pension, a more sinister issue lies in the background — a long-term plan to reorder Canadian society in his neo-conservative image.
On Wednesday night, the CBC’S “At Issue” panel showed an old video clip of Harper in his 2005/06 election campaign committing to not touch pensions, but rather to “build on those commitments.” Unfortunately, CBC did not juxtapose another of his famous, mendacious promises, the assurance that he would not touch Income Trusts. Yet, it did not take him long to do just that, and he destroyed a huge part of retirement savings for small businessmen and entrepreneurs like me who have no formal retirement pension.
Sigmund Roseth, Mississauga The discussion that is going on about OAS is missing a number of key issues. Yes, the number of people over 65 will be rising over the next 20 or so years, “the boom,” and then will come “the bust” when the numbers will drop sharply. Second, the low-income rate that people are quoting are the after tax income levels. According to Statistics Canada, in 2009 the low-income rate before tax for women over 65 was the highest of all low-income categories.
OAS and GIS have been critical in reducing the poverty rate among older people in Canada over the years. If that is taken away, reduced or delayed, the results will be an increase in poverty, especially among those who have been low income most of their lives.
Gerda Kaegi, Canadian Pensioners Concerned, Inc. Ontario Division, Toronto
“OAS and GIS have been critical in reducing the poverty rate among older people.” GERDA KAEGI TORONTO