The Harper Conservatives believe retirement income is the primary responsibility of the individual. It is a belief that does not take into account the absence of an ability to put aside retirement savings. And stripped of its ideological grounding, it is a far too convenient way to ignore a growing socioeconomic problem. Many, too many, Canadians are not putting aside sufficient money for retirement.
For the most part, a vast number of people simply don’t have anything left over for retirement savings after paying the cost of housing, clothing and food. Setting aside a sufficient part of income for retirement is just not an option.
For those who earn enough income to put aside savings, the daunting challenge is the time and expertise needed to manage a personal retirement investment plan. Having the financial wherewithal to purchase a RRSP or open a TFSA account is one thing, but it is quite another to maintain an annual injection into those saving vehicles, and then manage them in a way that produces investment growth. If economists have widely different views when it comes to predicting rates of investment returns, it is nothing less than an economic crapshoot when it comes to the uninitiated.
As reported by Stats Canada, the average salary in B.C. for the year 2014 was $46,900. That’s not a great deal for a family to live on. In fact, according to a report co-authored and released by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives last April, a family of four with two working parents would need a combined income in excess of $75,000 just to make ends meet. But even that income level isn’t be enough to carry a mortgage or put money aside for the kids’ education, much less accommodate a personal retirement savings plan.
Introduced in 1965, the CPP was based on this concept of employee/employer premium sharing, but it was meant as a base on which to build, not an end in itself. The federal government of the day left it up to employers and employees to establish workplace pension plans. However, employers (particularly non-union employers) didn’t rush forward to fill the pension void. Today, 76 per cent of Canadian workers do not have a workplace pension plan.
For the past 10 years the Harper government has stonewalled any and all suggestions of reformation or even that a pension crisis exists. According to a Nanos post-budget survey in April, 88 per cent of Canadians support an enhanced and expanded CPP. That being the case, all we now need is a government committed to making it happen. It’s something for all of us to think about over the next several weeks leading up to the Oct. 19 federal election.
