Looming retirement crisis a major problem, employers say

Hello. Welcome to 1969. This has been going on for forty years. When will the government do something. The companies will keep legally underfunding as long as they can. DUH!

Most companies (except large multi-nationals and the government "of course") do not provide a pension for thier employees. This aticle states: it poses a problem for a small number of Canadians- private sector , middle aged and high income. Even if you take out the high income earners who could cover their own retirement, I dont see how this is a small amount of Canadians.

Hell, even the gov't underfunds it's pension plan and this is just wrong. If a company wants to borrow against a plan it should be made to repay at current interest rates . Plain and simple, thew money should be in the bank.

If an employee has been told through negotiations or a hiring promise that they will receive a pension of $$$ then why does the government not enforce these corporate promises. The golden parachutes are just usually gifts to employees that are fired or who quit rather than face some embarrassment. The working stiff, like most of us, should at least get what we were promised!!!

All corporate pensions should be fully funded! Executives should not get anymore termination pay than the average stiff.( a few weeks salary)

If the company underfunds a pension and then can not pay should the government make it up.....NO
I do agree with enforcing it better so the money is there but if it is gone I dont see why people who will draw no more than the basic pension should have to foot this bill too. Then where is the incentive for company's that make these promises to even try to fullfill thier promise if they know it will covered off? I think this would just make them promise more....why would they care if they cant deliver? That being said...if there is no money for promised pensions, there should be no bonuses, no raises, no big severance packages etc etc etc.

STOP TAXING MY INTEREST INCOME!!

We are retired and all of our income comes from interest earned on gic's We worked our entire lives paid taxes faithfully for over 40 years. This is money we managed to save with no help from the government. I really do not want to risk my financial well being by investing in the CASINO of mutual funds and the stock market. I need to preserve what I have not gamble it away!

PLEASE MISTER FLAHERTY GIVE US RETIREES A BREAK!

The rest of us have to works our whole lives save our own money for retirement or live of the misely Canada pension. Teachers, civil civants retire rich, never have to even put a cent of their own money away for retirement yet these people are on strick every chance they get. Perhaps its time to put a stop to these unions holding us all hostage for outragous raises and better everything and then maybe our government can do something for the people who really work in this country!! PLus all these big corpoartaions are unionized hense why we all pay so much for goods in this country and why we are not competitive anymore. Classic example, a ticket taker for the TTC $50,000+ awesome beinfits, pension etc, when some poor convenince stor clerk who works ten times as hard makes what minimum wage. Unions are the really problem

Maybe some of you who don't want to gamble with your funds sit down with a planner. This individual could educate you on the accumulation, and how to best use the funds for income. Let's face it GIC returns are horrible, and are losing buying power every year due to inflation. The information that is available to people should be used, but lets just face it a lot old retirees will not change there ways, and pay for it one way or another.

The gov't at all levels has authorized generous pensions to it's workers, yet who pays for these great pensions? Of course we all know that the taxpayer does. So here's my rhetorical question. Why do I have to pay for these wonderful gov't pension plans when all I have is a few RRSP (which I solely paid for)? Are those gov't workers going to help me out during my retirement? How is it fair to force me and many other Canadians to pay for pensions that we can neither afford nor access?
If the gov't wants to grant generous pensions to its employees that fine but the rest of us poor working stiffs should also be eligible for those same pension plans, as we are footing the bill.

Well Ryan this is for you.You are most likely one of those planers. I had a planer i can tell you that planer made more money then i did and kept saying leave that money in there and if i had done that i think i would be on welfare by now

I don't know where you people get your info but alot of us union workers we co-pay into our pensions.Don't tell me that you would not enjoy a good benifit plan if one was offered.We fight tooth and nail to get and hold onto those benifits thanks to the large union dues we are required to pay.

Hate to break this to you folks but the average federal civil servant only makes a little more than you do and they have to fight to keep their jobs as the jobs are constantly being re-evalutated. How is that for stress? Further, if the provincial and federal governments make an agreement, the union has no say...and the federal civil servant who is probably more educated, is probably the one to lose their job because of said agreements. As far as RRSP and retirement funds are concerned, they have to pay into them just like you do and the federals treat those funds just like any other corporation does, usually making the civil servant pay more. Most people think that all civil servants get big payoffs. That is a fallacy. Only the bosses do. The regular working stiff has to put up with a lot of crap, not only from their bosses but from the public who regularly abuse the frontline staff. Before you make comments, do your homework first, you'll be surprised at what really goes on behind the scenes.

It amazes me that not only do civil servants get the best pay they also get the best, secure pensions. It's the ordinary taxpayer that foots the bill ... these ordinary people don't get the salary/wages/perks but yet have to pick up the tab for civil servants. When will the government wake up and start doing their job????

Hey, cjb, are you really that blind that you can't see the forest for the trees? Everyone has to pay their own way. Let me put it to you this way, the higher up you are in any organization, government included, the more you get. No one said life was fair. Not even an education will guarantee you anything. The regular frontline civil servants don't get any guarantees. Regular civil servants don't even enjoy the same freedoms and rights that we do. Like I said, do your homework and find out for yourself what goes on behind the scenes. It will make you sick at how many civil servants are barely making it themselves.

I hear the average MP's pension plans made gains of over 10% while ours took a kicking the last 2 years..maybe we can draw from the same pool or have access to the same funds that did so well? The rich stay rich and take from the poor...same song and dance. I cringe to wonder whats going to be coming down the pipe if i retire in another 30 years or so and my kids..are there going to be such things as pension plans?

Anon...what rights and freedoms are civil servants being denied? As far as job secuity, private sectors downsize when the going gets tough. The civil servants pool just keeps getting larger.
I dont beleive most civil servants make outrageous money and think most feel the same pain a private sector when costs increase...the difference being there are rarely the wage rollbacks in the public sector many of the private setor has seen. Raises seem to continue in the public sector even when private sector employees do not even get cost of living increases. You do get guaranteed benefits not available to many. I am not saying the wages arent deserved I just think public servants really should not cry that they are so hard done by.

We the people are the govenment. Yet we keep thinking the government will look after us. We keep voting in a socialist government (Liberal, NDP etc. ) and ask for more and all they get is more government interference because of strings attached to whatever they hand out. Its time for us to look after ourselves and ask what we can do for our country etc.etc.etc. We have to refuse to bring people into the Canada who just take from it all their lives without giving anything back. We cannot continue to do this at the expense of those who have worked and paid taxes and now have no pensions because we have become a third world country. The problem with pension funding goes deeper than expecting the government to make sure you and I are secure in our old age. People in power, elected or not, all look after themselves first. This is the way it has been since the beginning of time. Someone once said life is not fair. Look after yourself.
No one else cares." Thats not news but that too is reality." (quote from a news broadcaster)

I feel employees should have a Supplement Canada Pension Plan that they pay into & everyone beneifies; the employee pays half, employer pays one quarter and the government pays one quarter. This should be invested in reliable munds; the benefits would be according to what you paid in. You could drew this out when you were 60 or 65. This would benefit the gov't as they would not have to pay out so much supplement Old Age.
Keep It Simple- thanks for listening!

Nobody who fully understands a Pension and how it works would want one.
Suppose you and were saving $ in your bank account off your paycheck for years and years;
and you have saved up a bunch of $ over a long period of time;
you go to retire and start taking your monthly income: (lets say $1000/mth)
then you die and the bank says to your spouse we are going to take 40% of your monthly pension and give it to everyone else with an account at our bank.
Then if your spouse dies we the bank are going to take 100% of your hard earned savings and your kids and grandkids won't ever see a dime.
Would you ever allow that to happen at your bank??
That is exactly how a Pension works.

I'm middle aged, nearing retirement, mortgage free and can save about 50% of my income. However, I'm getting hammered by income taxes as all my non-registered investment income including interest, dividends & capital gains are being taxed at my top marginal rate. The government needs to stop taxing investment income as it is a deterrent to saving. As well, raising the upper limit of allowable annual RRSP contribution to 50% of all income (not just earned income) would be appropriate.

There is little incentive to save for retirement with the current tax burden on investors.