Presented by Ken Georgetti on Monday, 7 June 2010

(Check Against Delivery)

Good morning everybody. I’m Ken Georgetti, president of the Canadian Labour Congress and I am delighted to be here in St. John’s this morning.

I should mention that Lana Payne, president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Labour, is with us as well and I want to welcome her.

I want to thank His worship Dennis O’Keefe for generously agreeing to participate in this event, and for providing the space here at City Hall for us to hold this news conference.

But even more importantly, I want to thank Mayor O’Keefe for supporting a vision of pension reform that will provide retirement security for millions of Canadians.

We do have a pensions crisis in Canada.

Most of us are not saving enough to live comfortably in retirement.

One-third of Canadian workers aged 24-64 have no personal retirement savings at all, and 61.5 per cent of workers – 11 million people – have no workplace pension.

1.6 million seniors live in poverty.

Canada’s mayors and councillors know all about this.

They passed a resolution at their Federation of Canadian Municipalities convention two weeks ago calling for improved public pensions.

These leaders, including Mayor O’Keefe, are closer to their constituents than politicians at any other level of government.

They understand that we have a crisis on our hands, but that there are solutions available to us if we do the right thing.
The labour movement is strongly advocating a phased-in an expansion of CPP benefits as the cornerstone of pension reform and we are delighted that Canada’s mayors and city councillors agree with us.

We have organized many community pension forums across Canada in recent months, and our proposal has won the support, not just of our members, but of many seniors organizations, anti‑poverty groups and concerned individuals.

And now we have the support of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.

We applaud the vision of Mayor O’Keefe and the other mayors and councillors.

Their action tell us that we have strong support at the community level.

This really is a defining moment.

Our finance ministers have been talking about pensions for over a year now, and they are going to meet again in Prince Edward Island on June 13 and 14 to consider their next move.

It appears that at least some of them are backing away from their earlier promise to improve the retirement security of Canadians.

That would be a big mistake.

The way ahead is clear.

Our proposal to expand the Canada Pension Plan is by far the best option on the table.

I have written a letter to all of the finance ministers.

I have asked them to set all politics aside and to do the right thing.

I have told them that the option of expanding the CPP has won widespread support from ordinary Canadians and from pension experts.

Now is the time to move from analysis and discussion to action.

That's what I told the Newfoundland and Labrador's finance minister Tom Marshall this morning.

And that's what I will tell the PEI cabinet tomorrow when I meet with them.

There is no excuse for our finance ministers to drag their feet on pension reform.

Mayors and councillors understand that and it’s high time that our finance ministers commit to it as well.

An expanded Canada Pension Plan is the best and most practical way to improve retirement security for Canadians.

And with that I would like to turn it over to Mayor O’Keefe for any remarks that he may wish to make.