Trudeau government wimps out on Canada Pension Plan reform

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Trudeau government wimps out on Canada Pension Plan reform

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Finance Minister Bill Morneau isn’t even bothering to make empty promises about this central Liberal campaign issue.

After hosting a federal-provincial meeting this week that dealt with the Canada Pension Plan, all Finance Minister Bill Morneau could provide was a promise to study the issue further and meet again. It was hardly an example of the leadership that Justin Trudeau had promised during the election campaign, writes Thomas Walkom.

By: Thomas Walkom National Affairs, Published on Wed Dec 23 2015

Since coming to power, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s new Liberal government has taken strikingly bold positions.

It has promised a radically different relationship with Canada’s first nations. It has thumbed its nose at balanced-budget orthodoxy.

It has vowed to fight climate change without nettling the provinces and pledged to fight the Islamic State without engaging in combat.

It has defied both the polls and its critics to welcome thousands of Syrian refugees.

But when it comes to their campaign promise to beef up the Canada Pension Plan, the Trudeau Liberals have wimped out.

They are not doing anything. They are not even bothering to make empty promises about doing anything.

After hosting a federal-provincial meeting this week that dealt with the CPP, all Finance Minister Bill Morneau could provide was a promise to study the issue further and meet again.

It was hardly an example of the federal leadership that Trudeau had promised during the election campaign.

Introduced in 1965, the Canada Pension Plan is a forced savings scheme that serves as the backbone of the country’s retirement system.

Technically, employers and employees split the costs of the CPP. But in the long run, workers bear most of the burden — in the form of wages that are lower than they otherwise would have been.

What these workers get in return is a guaranteed annual retirement pension tied to the rate of inflation.

It’s not a big pension. In 2015, the maximum annual payout was only $12,780. But the idea behind the CPP was that this — combined with workplace pensions and private savings — would provide for a comfortable retirement.

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