AN OPEN LETTER TO KERRY-LYNNE FINDLAY,
While watching a news program on TV, a Conservative MP was questioned about the PM's comment on changing the age to receive Old Age Security (OAS).
She replied that she had not received any feedback from her constituents.
Here is my feedback:
It would seem that the present government, which has given tax breaks to businesses without demanding they actually produce new jobs so that people can increase their own retirement savings and their CPP accounts, is attacking those least able to absorb government cutbacks again.
I see the proposal as an attack on seniors who, when working, were earning minimum wage. It's also an assault on those who lost their pensions through (as most labour contract wording should state) the right of the employer to "mis"manage the business.
As, even now, women have incomes lower than that of men, they will be affected in larger numbers.
As far as I can see, the statistic of how the cost of OAS will increase doesn't include the amount of money that is taken back, as that money is combined in income tax and isn't generally calculated out.
So I am wary of the statement that this is an issue that needs to be dealt with.
If pensions are to be an issue, the first point should be to make the grossly over-compensated "top up" plans of MPs and senior government employees a thing of the past.
I do not see that these persons are worth more than that of any of the other people who work in government service that they cannot be covered by the same pension rules.
Laura Reston
Richmond
