Retirement Security for Canadians - Layton Announces Plans to Reform Pensions

OTTAWA – The recession has exposed serious flaws in Canada’s retirement savings system and has placed at risk the pension plans that many Canadians have paid into during their entire careers, New Democrat leader Jack Layton said today.

“Canadians are worried. They have seen their RRSP savings shrink or had their pensions collapse when their employers went under,” said Mr. Layton. “People who worked their whole lives, paid taxes and trusted in government to ensure income security in their later years are instead facing uncertain futures with inadequate resources. We need to offer people better protection.”

At least 11 million Canadians have only their public pensions to rely on for their retirement, and, at current levels, those pensions offer benefits that are far from adequate.
The measures Layton announced today are part of a comprehensive retirement-security plan that will benefit all Canadians. It was developed after months of cross-country consultations undertaken by New Democrat Pensions Critic Wayne Marston.

The features of the policy announced today are:
•       Increasing the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) to end seniors’s poverty.
•       Strengthening the Canada Pension Plan/Quebec Pension Plan, in consultation with the provinces, with a goal of doubling benefits. 
•       Developing a national pension insurance program, funded by employer pension plans, that will guarantee pensioners a minimum of $2,500/month in the event of bankruptcy and plan failure.
•       Creating a national facility to adopt workplace pension plans of companies in bankruptcy or in difficulty and keep them operating on a going-concern basis.

"These include the ideas Wayne heard in Sault Ste. Marie last July," Sault MP Tony Martin said today. "Our seniors and those heading to those years deserve retirement security. which will only happen with significant changes in government policy."