We think currently, if you read the literature that's out there—there was a certain study done a few years ago, even, by the C.D. Howe Institute on this exact issue of low-income Canadians trying to save for retirement—there really is no incentive right now for someone making, if I can generalize, under $25,000 or $30,000 a year to save at all, because the government will take care of them. Now, it won't do so at a very high level, but certainly they'll get things like a guaranteed income supplement or provincial Medicaid programs that we have across the provinces.
What we're recommending is that if we had some kind of incentive program—and we're not talking about a lot, but just an initiative—whereby, let's say, you could save $1,000 a year..... If someone—a family, let's say, making $30,000 to $35,000 a year—could save $1,000 and not risk, when they take the money out upon retirement, losing their government benefits, they'd still be able to get the government benefits they've been entitled to, which are currently acting as a disincentive to save.
We would say, on the one hand, that changing the policy to introduce either a new vehicle such as a tax prepaid savings plan from which withdrawals would not affect clawbacks, or exempting from the definition of “clawbacks” RRSP or RRIF withdrawals later on as retirement income, might act as an additional incentive—not to mention establishing a grant program similar to the RESPs, whereby the government might contribute 20% on a deferred basis into the plan.