Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Tories reject call to enhance Canada Pension Plan



Editorial cartoon in today's Calgary Herald

7 comments:

Dr Mike said...

If it wasn`t so sad this cartoon would be funny.

These politicians have to be laughing at us while we fill their personal pension fund bank known as the "Taxpayers Bank of Canada" using our hard earned money , guaranteeing their pension payouts for life.

It would be different if they cared a fig about us but somehow I doubt it.

They killed the small investor with the Flaherty/Carney/Harper income trust tax without so much as a "sorry" or a "since it was our fault you lost your shirts , is there anything we can do?"

Sail on you politicians & here`s hoping down the road that beauty boat of yours will spring a leak---a big leak.

Dr Mike Popovich

Anonymous said...

Hey dude, what's the ROI?

Ya it'd be great to have an enhanced CPP or a new RPPP to improve the income security of Canadians IN THE FUTURE.

I 'EMPHASIZE' in the future because right now there are hundreds of thousands of seniors who have had their income security made more difficult or even buggered by Flaherty.

Okay enuff about that and back to the future. Unless future seniors can invest in long-term assets that will generate significant and inflation-adjusted earnings, future seniors will also get buggered by Flaherty and his parochial cohorts.

So here's a acid test: if the investor is getting fair market value, what kinda of pension will $4,500 per month for 40 years buy?

Will that pension be more or less than CPP?

Anonymous said...

Pleae do not speak disparagingly of our dear Ministers and Heads of various departments. They have to make sure that when their chauffeur opens the door to their limousine, they don't get any dirty snow on their trousers. They are busy trying to decide what cocktail parties they will attend this holiday season. As soon as the Christmas turkey and the left overs are gone, it will be time to think of a decent winter holiday. When you have grave responsibilities, its important that you have a rest of some 6 weeks in the sun. The average Canadian has few worries so he can withstand the winter cold. Wish us well Canadian voters and taxpayers....and be grateful for the lovely snowy winter we are experiencing.

crf said...

As Canadians begin to retire, they'll be needing the market's shares to generally give more dividends, or to absorb share sales of shares to finance retirement.

Who's going to be the willing buyer if demographics suggest there will be a proportional increase in people needing to sell?

The government thus wants current workers to put more money into the market, and to save more, to help avoid the coming shortfall in buyers.

This is how I understand the motive behind this scheme of Flaherty's. I might be wrong.

I don't think it is necessarily the completely wrong policy either. But it feels rube-goldbergian and desperate. It's trying to solve two problems with one policy. If there is a shortfall in needed retirement income for seniors, the simplest solution is to enhance the mandatory cpp, and perhaps increase taxes on higher income retirees to help fund the GIS. If the stock market is sitting on cash and not productively investing, the government should impose policies that increase demand, by, for example, government spending or perhaps P3s, which lead to purchases of goods and services, increase the confidence companies have to make new investments, and make the market, rather than bonds and cash, an attractive investment for savers.

It would be better if the government were very clear about what problems it is facing, and design policies tailored to each one. Otherwise people are going to sniff around this proposal and sense that it is trying to paper over some real problems in our market economy. Investor unease could result (or continue), which would decrease demand for stocks and increase demand for cash and bonds: these are panicky times.

This panicky and deceptive policy suggests to me that quantitative easing, with the government directly buying into the market to stimulate demand, is still very much on the table. Which means the economy is much much weaker than it appears.

Anonymous said...

CPP PRPP RRSP TFSA RESP RDSP
hey Flaherty just add the
MSP ( Marshall Savings Plan )
and you can continue with your
Alphabet Soup Plans...


JIC

Anonymous said...

crf

People were putting lots of money into the market. They also lost $35billion when Flaherty killed income trusts.

Had income trust been left alone, this $35billion would still be the market and far more money would have been invested by boomers as they age looking for fairly secure monthly income.

All ruined by the ambulance chaser.

Railhound

Anonymous said...

In the Globe today (Jan 5/11):

January 5, 2011
Belt tightening demands 'more shoulders,' Tory minister says
By STEVEN CHASE
Globe and Mail Update
Newly minted as Flaherty's backup, Ted Menzies attempts to explain swelling size of Harper cabinet

It's not his job to explain the persistently big size of the Harper cabinet in an era of belt-tightening, but newly-minted minister Ted Menzies bravely tried at his first press conference Wednesday.

With a micro-shuffle Tuesday, Stephen Harper expanded his cabinet by two ministers, bringing it to a total of 38 - the size it was in 2010 before both Helena Guergis and Jim Prentice left the fold.

This would seem to run contrary to the restraint theme being preached by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty as he prepares a bare-bones 2011 budget that will rein in spending to fight the deficit and ask Canadians, particularly public servants, to make sacrifices.

It was, after all, Mr. Harper himself who made the size of cabinet an issue when he took office.

Back in 2006 he boasted his first cabinet was only 26 ministers, a deliberate attempt to contrast himself with former Liberal prime minister Paul Martin, whose cabinet was 38 MPs strong.

"My smaller cabinet and more streamlined cabinet structure are designed for work - not for show," Mr. Harper said in 2006 as he unveiled his first team of ministers. The size of the cabinet has expanded bit by bit since then.

Mr. Menzies, a well-regarded fiscal conservative from southern Alberta, spoke to reporters in Ottawa for the first time Wednesday as minister of state for finance - a job that makes him a backup minister to Mr. Flaherty.


...

Pressed on why the Tories are maintaining such a big cabinet when Mr. Harper came into office singing the virtues of leaner cabinets, Mr. Menzies said something that he probably should have said from the start.

"You should probably take that up with the Prime Minister. It was his decision to bring on people that he needed to fill those roles."

So true... when the belt tightens around the waist, the fat is pushed upward to the shoulders and higher.