Editor, The Record:
Re: Changes to pensions a long ways off, Feb. 2 edition.
MP Randy Kamp thinks that denying Canadians Old Age pensions for two years is "ensuring the retirement security of Canadians." Nothing could be further from the truth.
In fact, experts from the OECD, leading universities, and the government itself have all said our Old Age Security (OAS) program does not face major challenges, and there’s no pressing need for change.
Canada’s parliamentary budget officer says that OAS is sustainable beyond 2082. Payments today cost 2.4 per cent of our national GDP. When the boomers max out in 2031, that percentage will climb to 3.1 per cent but then drop off again.
Conservatives like Randy Kamp are really trying to raid your retirement savings to pay for their extreme ideological agenda.
They say current seniors won’t see their benefits cuts, but they aren’t saying anything about tomorrow’s seniors — hard-working Canadians who have based their retirement plans around having old age pensions available.
The fact is, more than half of old age pensions go to seniors earning less than $25,000 year.
Canadians workers have paid taxes their entire careers expecting these benefits will be available to them when they turn 65.
Raising the age for OAS will mean that some will have to stay longer in the workforce, whether they’re physically up to it or not. Seniors’ poverty rates could rise by one-third. That’s just not right — not in a successful country like Canada.
Scott Brison, MP
Liberal Party of Canada Finance Critic