Presented by Ken Georgetti on Saturday, 27 March 2010

(Check Against Delivery)

The challenge facing all parties in Parliament is how to solve Canada’s enormous retirement security crisis.

Former Bank of Canada Governor David Dodge telling Canadians to simply save far more money is laughable, when for 25 years, the wages of workers have stagnated or even dropped – and most new jobs are low income positions that don’t allow a decent standard of living, let alone significantly greater savings.

But here’s my surprise answer – we need to think like a corporate Chief Executive Officer.

CEOs want three things all Canadians want in retirement – access, security and certainty.

So every CEO worth their multi-million dollar pay cheque already has the retirement program that other Canadians would love – a registered defined benefits plan.

Defined benefits mean you know how much your retirement pay will be – it’s not based on a rollercoaster stock market ride.

47% of all workplace pension plans in Canada have less than 10 members - and guess what – they aren’t Mom and Pop small businesses – they’re for corporate managers only.

In fact, two years ago, 40% of plans were registered for single individuals!

But unions with much more modest defined benefits pension plans are being pressured to give them up for defined contribution plans – where contributions are defined, but benefits are uncertain.

And CEOs have zero likelihood of introducing new defined benefit plans for anyone but themselves.

So, how should Canada think like a CEO?

By dramatically changing the existing Canada Pension Plan into a plan that all Canadians can depend on for a retirement with dignity.

Why? Because the CPP is the best of both worlds – it is a defined benefit plan that’s also a defined contribution plan.

Canadians receiving CPP benefits know how much they’ll get – and under the CLC proposal to double retirement benefits, they would get a maximum $1,635 a month – that’s clearly a defined benefit plan.

And employers under the CLC proposal would know exactly how much contributions to their workers’ retirement plans would be – that’s clearly a defined contribution plan.

It’s time to admit that RRSPs have unfortunately failed to safeguard retirement since introduced – with good intentions – by Liberal Finance Minister Walter Harris in 1957.

Only one Canadian taxpayer in four made any RRSP contribution in 2008.

That’s why safeguarding retirement is a job for the Canada Pension Plan.