I’m a lucky man. I have a defined benefit pension. It guarantees me a particular income at retirement. It used to be the standard type of pension. But, in the 1980’s, businesses began to complain that they could no longer afford defined benefit pensions. Because of the vagaries of the
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Politics and its Discontents: The Secret Handshake
In her column in today’s Star (which does not yet appear to be available online), Linda McQuaig points out the remarkable similarities between the government of Justin Trudeau and that of Stephen Harper when it comes to facilitating the erosion of defined benefit pension plans. She observes that as a
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Perhaps He’s Right
I wrote yesterday that companies should be made fully liable for their employee pension plans. Tom Walkom writes that, essentially, pensions are deferred wages: Pensions are, in effect, the fruit of forced savings. Workers forego wages now for the promise of income after retirement. The actual payments are usually split
Continue readingPolitical Eh-conomy: The pension fight: on the picket line or in regulations?
It’s relatively common knowledge that employer-run pensions have been scaled back over the past few decades. I’ve decided to dig some data on pensions for this post to see just how this has taken place in Canada, motivated by a just-released analysis of US pension reform that finds contradictions in
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Pension bill delayed as Hancock softens ground for next PC Party leader
TweetIn another move suggesting the spring sitting of Alberta’s Legislative Assembly could end within days, it appears that the passage of the Progressive Conservative Government’s controversial public sector pension law – Bill 9: Public Sector Pension Plans Amendment Act, 2014 – will be delayed until the fall sitting later this year. The opposition filibuster of
Continue readingParliamANT Hill: Minister sorry for remarks about hungry children
Inspired by these headlines: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/james-moore-sorry-for-remarks-about-hungry-children-1.2465666 and http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/ontario-to-go-it-alone-after-cpp-reform-stalls-1.2465619
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Pension Reform
More of the white stuff has fallen, and I can ignore the importunate call of the snow shovel no longer, so I will make this brief with two reading recommendations for your Sunday morning discernment. In today’s Star, Martin Regg Cohn writes convincingly on the need for real pension reform,
Continue readingOPSEU Diablogue: CPP reform: Pensions and population health objectives should be linked
There are two accepted axioms in health care: 1. The older you get, the more health care you use. 2. Wealth is closely linked to health, or what policy wonks like to talk about as the “social determinants of health.” … Continue reading →
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Taint of Ideology
Although I’m sure that I frequently fall victim to it, I am deeply offended by lazy thinking, our seemingly endless capacity to fall back on ideological bromides as a substitute for careful and reasoned consideration of an issue. Instances of such defective cogitation abound, and are especially noticeable in online
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Evidence Suggests Now Is The Time For Pension Reform
Martin Regg Cohn writes that federal bureaucrats have presented Finance Minister Jim Flaherty with a plan to shore up the faltering Canadian pension system. Private pensions have been decimated by the Neo Conservative Revolution. Cohn writes: The world of pensions is collapsing around us. Traditional “defined-benefit” pensions that reliably promise
Continue readingLeft Over: Shaking Hands with the Devil You Think You Know….
While the Cons huff and puff and try to simply blow our House of Parliament down, let me play devil’s advocate here and rant about something that no one else (that I’ve been aware of) seems to be mentioning, in all the foofaraw about increasing the golden handshake contributions…
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