MP onside with planned pension reforms
Ryan Leef is backing Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s plans to overhaul Canada’s pension system.
Photo by Whitehorse Star
Ryan Leef
Ryan Leef is backing Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s plans to overhaul Canada’s pension system.
The prime minister announced his intentions during a speech he made last week at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland.
The Yukon MP believes his government is planning for the long-term future by making changes to the Canadian pension system.
“It’s one of those forward-looking things that governments over history have been criticized for not doing,” Leef told the Star this morning from Ottawa.
Leef said there are currently 4.7 million Canadians 65 years old and older. In 20 years, that number will jump to 9.3 million, he said.
“If we do nothing, it will be absolutely too expensive and unsustainable,” Leef said.
Harper’s speech in Switzerland was vague in terms of what changes the government would make to pensions. Over the last few days, it has been widely speculated that the prime minister wants to increase the eligibility age for Old Age Security (OAS) from 65 to 67 years of age.
There is also the proposed pooled pension legislation on the table. The plan gives employers and workers another option to set aside retirement savings in the form of a group Registered Retirement Savings Plan.
Opposition parties have cried foul over the proposed changes, claiming the Conservatives didn’t tell Canadians about altering pension formulas during the spring 2011 election campaign.
“The opposition took the approach that it wasn’t part of our commitment and platform, and then they said we didn’t highlight it enough,” said Leef
He said pension changes was outlined clearly in their platform and that maybe the NDP didn’t pay close enough attention during the campaign.
“What I can say with the utmost certainty is that everyone is speaking the same language of what we want; we just have very, very different ways of going about it,” Leef said.
The MP believes it’s an inevitable struggle he’s seen over and over. He’s tired of opposition just for the sake of opposition.
“It’s what happens when you have an NDP opposition and a Conservative majority.”
As for changes to the OAS, Leef said the key message is there will be no reforms that will affect Canadians currently receiving a pension, or even people who are close to retirement.
There will be a long adjustment period and a lot of notice if the changes do come into play, he continued.
Talk about changes to MPs’ gold-plated pensions has come up in Parliament, but Leef doesn’t know where the conversation will go from this point.
The 38-year-old said he would support any cuts to his wage or pension.
“I’m a young person and can save and make the necessary adjustments for my future.”
Although talk about retirement savings created most of the buzz after Harper’s speech at the World Economic Forum, the prime minister outlined several key priorities his government will focus on.
These include overhauling the immigration system and make international oil and gas exports a priority.
“We will make it a national priority to ensure we have the capacity to export our energy products beyond the United States, and specifically with Asia,” Harper said in his speech.
“In this regard, we will soon take action to ensure that major energy and mining projects are not subject to unnecessary regulatory delays — that is, delay merely for the sake of delay.”
The prime minister also said the government will continue to make key investments in science and technology, but Canada has been getting “less than optimal” in these investments in the past.
Leef said he didn’t disagree with anything in Harper’s speech. He thinks Canadians need to focus on jobs and economic prosperity, and everything else will “come after that.
“Without a strong economy, everything else suffers.”
Leef is in Ottawa for the three-week House of Commons sitting which began Monday.
Max Mack
Jan 31, 2012 at 6:27 pm
This is considered news? Does anyone truly expect Leef to say or do anything different than the party line?
Our government is proposing to spend billions (probably trillions once the final price tag comes in) on new ships and planes, while simultaneously looking for ways to cut social programs.