Presented by Ken Georgetti on Saturday, 27 March 2010

(Check Against Delivery)

Sisters and brothers,

I want to thank you, this panel and other speakers for discussing what is not only one of the most important issues facing us today – but one that will be critical for decades to come – the future of pensions and retirement.

I also want to thank the Ontario Federation of Labour and President Sid Ryan for co-sponsoring this forum with the CLC – because we desperately need a national debate about protecting and enhancing retirement security.

But I particularly want to thank those pensioners who came forward today to tell us about their lives – their hopes . . . . and their fears.

Only by putting a face on the issue of retirement security and the need for dramatic change will we convince Canadians and our governments to do not only what is right – but what is urgently necessary.

Because without significant improvements in pensions for all Canadians, we face the very real prospect that more and more working people who helped build this country will retire into poverty ... and despair.

That’s not the kind of Canada any of us wants to see.

You’ve heard a lot of very well informed discussion about retirement security.

And one thing is clear – whether you are a pensioner worried about your future or Don Drummond, chief economist of the TD Bank, or a union leader – we all agree that Canadians face a pension and retirement crisis that must be solved – and soon.

Where we disagree is on what that solution looks like.

So let me say this, from labour’s perspective – the solution does not lie in promoting more of the same failed policies that got us into this mess!

Specifically – we do not need to expand, extend or depend on Registered Retirement Savings Plans – RRSPs – they just haven’t worked!

They haven’t worked anywhere near what was envisioned when they were set up fifty years ago.

We do not need to tell Canadians that the burden of saving for their retirement is increasingly an individual responsibility.
The banks, financial institutions and investment “advisors” – and the governments who listened to them – are the ones who have put the retirement security of generations of Canadians at risk!

Their so-called solutions are in fact the problem!

What we do need are real solutions that – surprise, surprise – actually work for all Canadians.

First – we need a Canada Pension Plan that can really provide a living pension for all Canadians.

That’s why the CLC wants Canada Pension Plan benefits doubled to a maximum of $1,635 a month.

We need to raise the pension floor from a poverty level of $12,000 a year to a livable $24,000 for the retirees of the future.

After a seven year phase-in period, those nearing retirement will see a benefit improvement, but the biggest bang for the buck will be for today’s young workers.

Second – we need an immediate 15% increase in Old Age Security benefits to lift today’s seniors out of poverty.

And third – we need pension plan insurance to protect every worker’s pension income, so they can retire with dignity and security.

Is that so much to ask in such a rich country as Canada?

I don’t think so.

Let’s look at the cold, hard facts.

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

And a new poll suggests that in 2009 only 1 in 3 Canadians put any money into an RRSP.

And yet in a recent report, TD Bank’s Drummond concludes that: “The focus must be on improving the incentives to save.”

Maybe finding a job for 1.5 million unemployed Canadians would be a start!

Maybe improving the wages of workers, after 25 years of wage stagnation for middle-income earners.

Or improving the wages of low income workers who have actually lost purchasing power over the last 25 years.

And gee, I wonder who would benefit most from yet more reliance on RRSPs – the banks selling them or Canadians who buy them?

The answer is obvious, and made more so by the fact that the recent economic crisis obliterated the value of individual RRSPs by billions.

Not to mention the bite that is taken out of the value of individual mutual fund RRSPs by the highest management fees, not just in North America, but the world, that goes into the pockets of the financial industry.

It’s the same story with health care – corporations want to profit by increasingly making individuals responsible for their coverage and reducing the funding for our collective and public health care plan.

Well sisters and brothers – it ain’t gonna work – not for pensions and not for Medicare!

The obvious solution to retirement security is simple – double the Canada Pension Plan benefits so that all workers – union and non-union – can retire with security.

Here’s why we need it.

At a pension forum in Windsor we heard from Gail – she is 63 and worked as a cook in a unionized retirement home.

But when it closed four years ago, Gail couldn’t find work and had to sell her house and all her assets.

She went from earning a decent wage to going on EI, and later welfare.

She now uses food banks, lives in a tiny apartment, and lives on an after-rent budget of less than $300 a month!

Gail is waiting for age 65 when she qualifies for the Guaranteed Income Supplement – waiting to still live in poverty.

Because then she will be among 1.6 million Canadian seniors earning under $15,000 a year.

“I lost my dignity,” Gail says. Now I ask you – how can people like Gail be expected to buy RRSPs – or be told to live in poverty for the rest of their lives?

Gail’s story illustrates the CLC plan’s first two points – why we need to double Canada Pension Plan benefits and to immediately increase the Guaranteed Income Supplement by 15%.

Our third point – we need pension insurance – again, here’s a real life example why.

Miguel worked for Nortel for over 25 years.

Miguel lost his severance pay because of Nortel’s bankruptcy, and stands to get little of his pension.

Nortel will only pay pensions and benefits until the end of 2010 – after that all bets are off.

Why? Because workers still rank close to last in bankruptcy law.

We have made some improvements, but workers still get shafted on pensions and severance in bankruptcy courts.

Miguel and tens of thousands of other Canadians have seen their pension plans drastically reduce benefits because of the economic meltdown caused by corporate greed and the lack of government regulations.

It’s why the CLC says we need federal pension insurance.
We insure our lives, our homes, our vehicles, our jobs – but not our pensions!

That doesn’t make any sense – it must change.

So sisters and brothers, the time for the CLC’s plan for retirement security is now.

This is our time – our moment to make the most sweeping and positive change Canada has seen since Tommy Douglas introduced Medicare in Saskatchewan in the 1960s.

And we know that with your help supporting our campaign, we can win.