Finance committee  Thank you very much. Our acronym is the legal name for the Canadian Association of Retired Persons, but we now use the name CARP because we act for people who are retired as well as those who would like to retire—and in this climate that's going to be a major challenge. We're a

Finance committee  Yes, thank you. A universal pension plan that is an increase in the CPP, as one example, and is fully paid out, in the current state of affairs, to get people 70% of their pre-retirement income if we cover a higher percentage of the income, would cost somewhere in the neighbourh

Finance committee  No, but everybody is talking about it, so I suppose that's an advance. On the importance of a pension summit--and I'm sure it will happen soon--the people at the table would be the ones who could make the changes. So it wouldn't be everybody else talking amongst themselves; the

Finance committee  As the only non-pension expert at the table, I would say yes, we do need experts to manage the plans overall, but at some point the rules have to change as well. The CPP, for example, measured up extremely well compared with all the other plans, even in a bad market. Why was that

Finance committee  You're absolutely right. The importance of the CPP is that it's mandatory, first of all, and that makes it extremely broad-based. It means people don't have the choice of spending all their money. They have enforced savings. The other important aspect is it allows employers an

Finance committee  Right, absolutely. As I say, some 29% of Canadian families don't have anything at all. It would address that group, it would address the people in the private sector, only 25% of whom have any access to defined benefit pension plans, and it would allow people to contribute to a u

Finance committee  The greatest impact in the securities regulation area is the impact on people who are handling their own investments. When their investments go down the tubes, they look to see what happened—whether the market was adequately regulated and whether they have recourse in the event t

Finance committee  Actually, CARP has a full position on that. It is true that in federally regulated industries, mandatory retirement still persists. The companies can't do anything about it, but they can petition the federal government to change the law with one fell stroke, which is what all the

Finance committee  And with the universal plan, you don't need to worry about portability.

Finance committee  But it is a patchwork. It depends on each separate private pension contract. Some people have it, some people don't. Some people have employers that provide that flexibility, some people don't. You need to look for some kind of minimum standard that provides flexibility for every

Finance committee  Yes, I'd like to point out that the tax rules don't prevent you from contributing to the surpluses. You don't get tax deductions if you put it into your plan. If you wanted to set up a surplus fund or a contingency fund outside of getting a tax deduction for it, nothing stops you

Finance committee  It was a huge benefit, because the tradition up to now is that there's usually one pension-earning spouse and one non-pension-earning spouse, and obviously when you split that pension income between two taxpayers, you have a net tax savings to the family. It's been huge for many

Finance committee  Absolutely. I think there is a need--and I think it was mentioned here before--for some financial literacy among our whole population as to what it costs to prepare for your own retirement. As also has been mentioned, nobody starts to think about this until it's too late, really,

Finance committee  In its current state, no, because it doesn't solve the problem.

Finance committee  Yes, it is.