27 August 2010
Real Action Needed to Protect Retirement
McGuinty Liberals ignore own experts, leave pensioners vulnerable: Miller

QUEEN'S PARK—The McGuinty Liberals are ignoring their own expert’s recommendations and leaving too many Ontarians without adequate coverage for their retirement, says NDP Leader Andrea Horwath and NDP Pension Critic Paul Miller.

“We were hoping to see a plan to help the two-out-of-three people in this province without a workplace pension. They need help and they’ve been left waiting again,” said Horwath in response to the government’s pension plans.

Horwath and Miller were also disappointed by the government’s decision to ignore their own Expert Commission on Pensions.

The government’s experts called for an increase to the monthly benefit guaranteed by the province’s pension insurance agency – the Pension Benefits Guarantee Fund. Currently, a pensioner who loses their benefits is guaranteed only $1000 a month — an amount Commissioner Harry Arthurs called “much lower than those provided by counterpart guarantee funds in the United Kingdom and the United States”. He called for an increase to $2500, calling it a “a relatively low-cost response to the potential risks of plan failure.”

“This government is condemning working women and men to poverty if their pension plan fails,” said Miller. “They’ve ignored their own expert advice and left pensioners vulnerable.”

Horwath and Miller also expressed disappointment in the government’s decision not to implement another key recommendation of their expert commission: the creation of an Ontario Pension Agency. A provincially-managed pension agency would rescue abandoned defined benefit pension plans, protecting the retirement income of plan members.

-30-

Media Contact: Paul Miller (416) 325-0707

Back to News & Events