Good morning and thank you for the opportunity to address you today about the pressing issue of pension reform.
My name is Laura Tamblyn Watts and I'm the CEO of CanAge, Canada's national seniors advocacy organization. We're a pan-Canadian, non-partisan, not-for-profit organization. We work to advance the rights and well-being of Canadians as they age.
With me today is Brett Book, policy officer, with whom I will be co-presenting.
Canadian pensioners need protection from corporate default, particularly during and post COVID-19. Compared to other jurisdictions, Canada lags significantly in its protection of pensioners. With this bill, government can protect pensioners at exactly zero tax impact to other Canadians. This bill puts the risk back where it belongs, in the hands of corporations.
Members of the committee, seniors vote. Overwhelmingly, 72% of all seniors vote in every election, and 89% voted in the last two federal elections. This is an election issue for them. The issue of pension protection recently scandalized the nation with the catastrophe of Sears pensioners, but it has happened many times before, and will continue to happen again until real change is made by government.
CanAge has three key arguments in support of this bill and pension reform.
First, pension protection is long overdue and COVID has changed the landscape; second, old arguments against pension reform are incorrect and outdated; and third, the financial security of seniors matters.
First, pension protection is long overdue and COVID has changed the landscape. I'd like to tell you a story about a member who reached out to us this year. I'll call him Bob. He works at Laurentian University, where his DB plan is located. Laurentian is now in dire straits. Bob's wife worked at Sears and lost her financial security when she lost her Sears pension. He cried to me, heartbroken, on the phone, and asked how it could possibly be that they both worked their whole lives and contributed to their plans, and now face poverty because they are last in line for their own money?
We know that during COVID-19 many seniors faced hard financial times, with increased costs and low interest rates. With austerity assuredly in sight soon, we also know that more employers are likely to fail. Unless government acts now to protect the deferred wages of pensioners, more seniors will be robbed of their hard-earned money and left to a future of financial insecurity. With an aging population, this is an issue of escalating importance.
I will now turn to Mr. Book to continue.