By John Hanrahan
Canadian finance ministers met on December 15 and 16, 2013 at Meech Lake near Ottawa to discuss the possible enhancement of the Canada Pension plan (CPP). Most CPP enhancement proposals call for doubling the annual benefit of $12,150.
Yet instead of stepping up to the plate and securing a future of retirement with dignity for all Canadian workers, the Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, who will have access to an extremely generous taxpayer-funded plan when he retires, failed Canadian workers and decided to do nothing.
The facts on retirement security in Canada are shocking:
[list style=”list1″ color=”red”]- 12 million working Canadians, a full 2/3, are not covered by a pension plan in their workplace.
- Only 24% of Canadians contributed to an RRSP in 2011.
- The average CPP payment to retired Canadians is $7,200 per year.
- The maximum CPP payment to retired Canadians is $12,150 per year.
- The maximum pension payment for a Member of Parliament (MP) is over $100,000 per year.
- Canadian taxpayers pay 85% of the cost of MP pensions. [/list]Flaherty has called CPP a “job killing tax” and maintains that the country cannot afford to enhance the CPP. Yet while the Finance Minister fights against retirement security for tens of millions of current and future Canadian workers, he posts record federal deficits while giving billion dollar tax breaks to banks and big business, and then stands in line for his own taxpayer-funded, gold-plated pension.
Canada can afford CPP enhancement. What we can’t afford is Jim Flaherty.
Sign the petition to support the enhancement of the CPP and retirement with dignity for all Canadian workers:
