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Pension
reforms welcome The Régie des rentes du Québec
is proposing changes to the Quebec Pension Plan. And as one would expect
from this agency, the suggestions are the product of sound analysis,
foresight and even wisdom. When French Prime Minister
Jean-Pierre Raffarin visited Canada last May, he cited the Canada Pension
Plan, and the parallel, separately administered Quebec plan, as great
achievements of Canadian public administration. We take our public pensions for
granted, as citizens of any rich country should. But that's not the case
in France and many other industrialized nations, which have pension models
that are clearly unsustainable. With an aging baby-boom
generation and lower birth rates, both pension plans have found themselves
obliged in recent years to increase contribution levels to meet their
growing pension obligations. Now, in Quebec, the Régie is
proposing, among other things, a way to persuade people age 65 and over to
stay in the work force and delay taking their pension at all. What's good
is the Régie sees the wisdom of using incentives, rather than coercion. By proposing to increase pension
entitlements by 0.7 per cent for every month after age 65 that someone
delays taking their pension, the Régie has put forward a win-win
proposition. With more than 300,000 Quebec jobs expected to be vacated by
new retirees over the next three years alone, it's in the interest of
Quebec to devise incentives to keep experienced workers in the workforce. It's good to see the Régie is planning a province-wide series of public hearings on its proposals. These are sensible suggestions, and when they're explained, they will likely be welcomed. Copyright
© 2002 Global Action on Aging |
