RED DEER ADVOCATE Saturday, Sept. 8, 2012 A7
Many face impending pension crisis Despite the claims of the federal size businesses, was seen as the solugovernment, low and middle-income tion by encouraging more Canadians to Canadians in the private sector still save for retirement.. face a pensions crisis. Government workers at the federIn June of this year, fedal, provincial and municieral legislation brought into pal levels, along with other being Pooled Registered public sector workers such Pension Plans, a new way as teachers, enjoy generous that low- and modest- inand inflation-indexed pencome Canadians could save sions that they can start refor retirement that was preceiving in their 50s. sented as the solution to adBut fewer than 15 per equate pensions for these cent of private sector workBut despite ongoing feders can expect to receive eral efforts to push the idea, a proper job-related penit is fundamentally flawed. sion while about 75 per cent As the C.D. Howe instihave no employer-based tute, a conservative think pension plan at all. DAVID tank, argues in a new analyTheir only assured penCRANE sis, “as currently proposed, sion income will come from RRPPs present only the apthe Old Age Security and pearance of reform because the income-tested Guaranthey are for the most part teed Income Supplement a re-release of an existing and the Canada/Quebec retirement savings vehicle — Regis- Pension Plan. tered Retirement Savings Plans (RRAs the C.D. Howe report stressed, SPs) -with a new coat of paint.” the RRPP is only “a mild improveIndeed, the C.D. Howe study says, ment” over RRSPs because the tax the plan may do more harm than good rules are essentially the same as those for low- and modest- income Canadi- for RRSPs, with the same modest limans. its on annual contributions for lowThe federal plan, which is a re- and middle-income workers. sponse to growing concern over the Moreover, in contributing to RRPPs, lack of savings by low- and modest- as with RRSPs, Canadians would get a income Canadians working in the pri- tax deduction for their contributions vate sector for retirement, especially but be taxed on the payouts they reCanadians working for small and mid- ceive when they retire.
INSIGHT
This puts them at risk of losing income-related retirement benefits — such as the GIS and clawback on Old Age Security — and these losses could outweigh any tax deductions received when the contributions were made. Over a lifetime, the C.D. Howe study argues, low- and modest-income workers would be better off contributing to a tax-free savings account with aftertax dollars, because income from this savings plan, when it is drawn down, is not taxable and therefore would not risk any loss of income-related benefits, such as OAS clawback or GIS, on retirement. The C.D. Howe study suggests major changes in RRPPs if they are to benefit low- and modest-income Canadians. One proposal is to allow worker to make after-tax contributions to RRPPs, as they can with tax-free savings accounts, so they do not risk losing access to income-related government-provided benefits such as OAS and GIS. In addition, the C.D. Howe study argues that workers should not be limited in the contribution they can make each year until they have accumulated at least $250,000, since, the study argues, this is the minimum level, combined with OAS, CPP and if needed GIS, which would provide a modest overall retirement income. Finally, the C.D. Howe study argues that RRPPs should be designed to provide an actual pension, which under
the existing plan, they would not. An RRPP would generate a lump sum amount at retirement age, which individual workers would be expected to manage on their own. But low levels of financial literacy and the growing frailty of the old-old means there should be a “pension” alternative which would allow RRPPs to be converted to a pension annuity on retirement. Another option would be to allow low- and modest-income Canadians to establish individual supplementary pension plans with CPP, with the same tax provisions as the C.D. Howe Institute urges for RRPPs. This would be opposed by financial institutions which are eager to cash in on RRPPs but would bring greater choice to Canadians. The reality is that the issue of adequate pensions for low- and modestincome Canadians in the private sector, where the majority of Canadians work, is still unresolved. Yet the longer we delay meaningful reform, the greater the number of working Canadians today who will face a financial nightmare when they stop working. Are we comfortable with this? I doubt it. David Crane can be reached at crane@ interlog.com.
Where your children are At four foot eleven and Well she did; and you could somewhere between ninety and see that she was very fearful, a hundred pounds, this very but after a bit of encouragepretty young nineteen year old ment, we convinced her that we stands out without any effort on would not do anything without her part. her consent, and if She is one of at anytime she felt many young people uncomfortable she on the street this could speak up and summer that is of we would return some concern for her to wherever she those of us who are wanted. doing what we can to Finally she went get all these folks off with the volunteer to of it. her home. On a Tuesday This worker gave a few weeks ago as up her own bed and we were preparing she slept on the to serve supper, this couch while Rosie CHRIS young girl asked if slept on the bed unshe could speak to SALOMONS disturbed. Apparme. After finding a ently she was very quiet corner in the scared and hesitant, kitchen, ”Rosie”, bebut eventually she gan to tearfully exslept, and did so plain that she was tired of the till about seven thirty the next way things were going on the morning. street, and her boyfriend was When she got up, she was verbally abusing her by calling presented with the choice to her terrible names. meet together or whatever she Also, he was using drugs; wanted. She chose to be reshe wasn’t, she only used alco- turned downtown, which she hol, which I could smell on her was, but with the assurance that breath. anytime she wanted, we would She went on to say that she be available to help her. could not get the help she needOn Monday evening past afed to get away from her present ter a meeting at the kitchen, as lifestyle that she was caught up a few of us were outside saying in. our good-byes, I noticed Rosie She wanted a safe place to standing on the corner. stay and also she wanted to A pick-up with an older go back to school, but no one man in it pulled up and Rosie would help her. jumped into the passenger seat I told her that I would see and off they drove. if I could find something and My heart fell to the pavement instructed her to return to the as I stared the driver down, but kitchen about seven P.M. after there was nothing I could do. supper and cleanup was done That night I did not sleep and would hope to have some- very well, because in my mind I thing for her at that time. could only imagine what could After some scrambling, happen during this “trick”. one of the kitchen volunteers It was everything I could do agreed to take Rosie home for to get up and go to the kitchthe night and then if she want- en at five A.M. to start another ed, we could meet on Wednes- day; I just did not want to go. It day morning to see what else felt to me like I had witnessed we could do to help her, if she my own daughter get into that came back by seven. truck, even though she is not
STREET TALES
my daughter, but that is how I had begun to feel about Rosie. On Tuesday A.M., sure enough, there were a few more marks on her face and neck that had not been there on Monday. As she was leaving the kitchen, I placed my hand on her shoulder, and said that sometime soon we should talk, but only if she wanted. With a hurried OK, she was out the door. At the time of this writing, we are on holidays in B.C. celebrating our thirty second anniversary and some family birthdays, so I should be using this time to set worries and other concerns aside for a while, but this particular issue is staying with me and I can’t shake it. All I see in my mind is this “cute as a button” little girl being abused for no other reason than a few measly dollars. This young girl is partially illiterate and governed by what she feels is her life on the street and feels rejected by society at large because she is on the street, so as a result, her drinking is a way for her to cope with the guilt and other feelings because she does what she does to survive. All of this could have been a scam, but I chose to believe it was truly a cry for help. And I don’t really know why I’m writing this other than to ask these questions: What is it in our “enlightened” society that allows this child,(because that is what she is), to be on the street in the first place. This young girl is nineteen years old, old by comparison to some of the other kids who are as young as twelve. Are we that hard and harsh a society as to leave them there? That’s how I see it. Chris Salomons is kitchen coordinator for Potter’s Hands ministry in Red Deer.
G’day to yous frum dis big island, y’hear now? “Yer’ll never go back to that Alberta travel with a carry-on and he could use m’boi that’s for shure now, I’m tellin’ my allotted suitcases in addition to his ya the trute better believe it now?” own to try and fit all his worldly stuff. This is what greets you — at least By summer’s end all we could arthis is what greeted me and my rotten range was a basement room that kid as soon as we set foot on this inturned out to even sketchier than our credible far-away island. worst fears would allow us to imagine. And on this island we are well and At this point he was ready to go truly firmly-footed upon back to Alberta and get his still — the island of the beloved 1966 Rambler to New and the Found Land — live in, completely overwhich is pronounced “Nooflooking the fact that the old flnnd” by the proud and rattletrap would be lucky to colorful locals. make it out of the subdiviThe rotten kid, the son sion let alone the province. one, after having ventured That’s how desperate to Madagascar to study things were getting. And allemurs and bugs and sand so his phone wouldn’t work, and what it’s like to get maand neither would mine. A laria, and then Ecuador to real inconvenience for me, study birds and bugs and a complete disaster for him. dense rainforest and what He would rather go without HARLEY it’s like to be bitten by a his spleen than go without HAY bullet ant, decided this his phone. year on an even more scary Apparently our service trip involving college and a provider (rhymes with Codpurely Canadian adventure gers) unbelievably doesn’t about as far away as you can get and have coverage on this part of the isstill be privileged to pay GST (and sevland, so we would have to change to eral other STs). another service provider (rhymes with And he’s been trying since June by Smellus) which ironically is based way super-long distance to get registered far away back home in the west. in the highly touted Fish and Wildlife After a day and a half in the phone Conservation Technician program store at the local maaall (I’m exaggerat the College of the North Atlantic ating), and back at the hotel another (Motto: two and a half HOURS on the phone “We’re Real Good, by Cod!”) and with the help desk (I’m not exaggerfind a place to live that doesn’t involve ating) the rotten kid’s phone finally a tent and sleeping bag. This last part works here on the Rock. has been a mighty challenge, believe So, college is starting in one day, it my luv. So I said I’d come along to we’re still in a cheap hotel, nowhere help out (and selfishly check out the to live, the old man (me) starting to Rock for the first time) and he agreed get cold sores on account of stress. I on account of he figured out I could hate cold sores, and I’m not that big on
HAY’S DAZE
stress either. “Der’s near to one percent vacancy rate here to be sure der buddy, so’s youse better find yerself some luck, know what I mean?”, the guy at the phone store told us. At least I think that’s more or less what he said although he could have been trying to sell us a new phone, it’s kind of hard to understand this foreign language when you are stressed and getting cold sores. Meanwhile the son is starting to check on possible flights back home for himself, and we are using the hotel phone to try to find accomodations – at 50 cents a call. Put it this way, I’m going to sell his car when I get back – for telephone reimbursement alone. The Newfoundlanders are all helpful and lovely but none of them have a room left to rent, although most of them offer up their couch. “Wouldn’t put ‘im out on the street, now would we, dear?” So we take a rental car drive up the coast to get away from it all for a spell, cruising along the highway 450 and the Bay of Islands and the mountains and the ocean that Captain Cook first discovered, like 4 centuries ago. And just when we are sufficiently amazed we find ourselves in a quintessential Newfoundland village called Frenchman’s Cove and we are out of the car and taking pictures of the fishing boats and shanties and docks and back in the car we drive a couple hundred meters and there on the rocky shore is a big pile of crates and netting and we realize — hey those are actual real lobster traps, and we stop the car and are out taking pictures again. Like
a couple of shameless western tourists the first time on the Rock. It would be like a Newfoundlander stopping to take pictures of a combine in a field in Alberta, or cherry pickers on 10 meter ladders in B.C. or a Liberal in the city of Ottawa. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any whales in the bay and fortunately perhaps we didn’t see any moose on the road. But we got real good advice from the locals. Look out for dem moose my boi, de’s dangerous on da roads, y’see? Got more dan million of dem moose on dis island, my frienn, there’s probly more dem moose dan people, mind?” So the week is gone by virtually moose-less and the rotten kid is at class as we speak (well, as I type) and I’m in the hotel. The good news is we found a place for the rotten kid, the bad news is I have to leave this island tomorrow. “Quite a place you have here,” I said to one of the locals the other day. “I’ve always wanted to visit the Maritimes.” “Well, my boi, you still haven’t visited them Maritimes, no sir. This here’s what ya call Atlantic Canada. All them other little islands are them Maritimes, to be sure now? We here is the Big Island, and proud of it, know wha’ I’m sayin?.” And I thought to myself, I finally know exactly what you’re saying. Harley Hay is a local freelance writer, award-winning author, filmmaker and musician. His column appears on Saturdays in the Advocate. His books can be found at Chapters, Coles and Sunworks in Red Deer.