@ MM – I’m fine with the cap, from October to the end of the year, it’s “bonus” time when I cap out on CPP and EI – good for saving for Christmas

Not if enough voters are on the receiving end of this. There are several million civil servants in this county with strong unions. If enough of them vote for a polition that is likely to protect their pensions then the rest of the tax payers are SoL.

Since the CPP is rarely enough to get by how about not capping contributions. I think the maximum is set at a percentage that’s based on a $45k/yr salary. Allowing people who make more than this to contribute more (and therefore extract more) might be a good idea. Although clearly any politician proposing taking more money from Canadians will surely be run out of town.

But we do have that. It’s called CPP (which by the way is a defined benefit plan). This is partly why some people have been considering should we expand the program to provide more coverage as part of the solution to this mess. That way everyone has some access to some of a DB pension. The trick would be how do you phase in the new benefits so that people don’t get a lot of extra money with no extra contributions.

Mitch/Annie,

I think in time the government is going to have to either scrap those DB pensions or limit their payouts by a lot. It’s the only way to save the taxpayers the expense of running those pensions.

CM,

You are partly correct. CPP is a pension that everyone has (which I did refer to in the post). OAS is called a pension, but technically isn’t one. Since it has no investment fund or set contributions it is in fact just a government program. As such it has no laws to protect the money used in the program and they can be cut at any time. So as the costs of the program grows to eat up more government revenue you can bet that some adjustments will be made to this program at some time.

Tim

I couldn’t agree more.
At age 52 I have no access to a gold plated pension. I have to fund my own retirement and no guarantees from the taxpayers. I should be in quite good shape but only as a result of my own frugality and self discipline. I shouldn’t have to fund my own retirement and all the public service workers as well. As a parent of 4 young adults I don’t see it as their generation’s responsibility to finance my retirement or any other Canadian’s. We are all responsible for ourselves.

I would argue that in Canada, there are not 11 million workers without pensions.

Those people have CPP and OAS, plus additional money from OAS for the poorest of the poor. If the OAS is cut then more may qualify for OAS supplements.

Everyone will get likely in-the-order of $1,000 or more per month. If it is a couple they will get more and a single person can find a room mate.

Much like taxation, but the deductions from your paycheque goes into your pocket for retirement purposes ONLY, and you can’t touch it until you’re 65.. or something.

Those stats are really frightening.