IN THE NEWS: Secure workplace pensions top of many minds

Op-ed by Chris Charlton originally appeared in the Hamilton Mountain News

By CHRIS CHARLTON

Nov 13, 2009

Large Medium Small Print This Article Tell a friend Whenever my schedule permits, I knock on doors on the Mountain to ask which issues residents would like me to raise on their behalf in the House of Commons. For the last year, no issue has come up as often as the security of workplace pensions and the fear of not having enough money to survive retirement.
Perhaps people raise it because they know that I used to be the NDP pension critic and I’m now the labour critic. Pension reform is an integral part of both portfolios. In fact, the very first Bill I introduced in the House was to give super-priority to pensions in cases of commercial bankruptcies.

It looks like our tenacity on this file is finally paying off. The Liberal Toronto Star acknowledged in a recent editorial that “it took a set of concrete commitments from the federal New Democrats to shift the debate from vague assurances to tangible reforms.”

And the Conservative Ottawa Citizen echoed that sentiment when it said: “Give Jack Layton credit. He was all over the unfolding pension crisis long before the Liberals, the media and the premiers --never mind the blandly unconcerned Harper government.”

Add to that the finance minister thanking me publicly for the ideas that I have brought forward on pensions and you know the issue is finally moving in the post-partisan direction that will lead to results. And so the federal government did announce much-needed changes to the pension system late last month. It pledged to end “contribution holidays” by employers, to boost allowable surpluses in pensions funds to insulate against future economic shocks, and to require companies that terminate their pension plans to pay all benefits owing to workers.

These changes are certainly welcome and I believe they deserve the support of all political parties. But they still leave far too many workers and pensioners unprotected.

So we’ll keep pushing for further reforms, including an expansion of the CPP, an increase in the GIS, enacting super-priority for pensions in cases of bankruptcy, and the creation a national pension insurance program, funded by employer pension plans, that will guarantee pensioners up to $2,500 a month in the event of bankruptcy and plan failure.

In answer to my question in the House, the finance minister did acknowledge that “there is more to be done.” If we can work on that co-operatively, I am hopeful that Mountain residents will finally be able to retire with the dignity and respect they deserve.

Chris Charlton is MP for Hamilton Mountain. Columns from the Mountain’s elected provincial and federal representatives appear monthly.