Everybody Into the Pooled Registered Pension Plan!

Jim Flaherty advises you to do what that Dutch guy on TV says: Save. Your money.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s decision not to increase mandatory contributions to the Canada Pension Plan is a good idea, declares the National Post. The paper’s editorial board much prefers Flaherty’s option of Pooled Registered Pension Plans (PRPPs), a separate supplementary fund that employees could opt-out of if they want to. “Like us, the Tories appear to prefer the carrot-based approach,” says the Post, “which respects the ethos of personal responsibility and choice.”

On the other side of the spectrum is Bob Baldwin, who writes in the Globe and Mail that he doesn’t see how we can avoid compulsory measures to force Canadians to save enough money for their golden years. “No experience in any OECD country suggests that we will significantly improve retirement savings or the coverage of employer pensions through voluntary means,” he writes.

The Toronto Star rejects Flaherty’s excuse that increasing CPP contributions during a time of economic hardship is a bad idea. “[N]o one is talking about an overnight doubling of CPP premium,” says the Star. “The proposal being advanced by the Canadian Labour Congress and others is to phase in an increase in premiums and payouts gradually. In fact, there is no better time to do this, given the momentum for [pension] reform in the wake of the financial meltdown.” The Star might have added that baby boomers are about to begin retiring by the grey-haired droves, so there is no time like the present.

The Ottawa Sun likes the idea of PRPPs but finds the “save more” message a little hard to swallow, given its source. “[I]sn't it a bit hypocritical that politicians of all stripes are preaching about the importance of saving when every single one of them has shown an out-of-control addiction to spending?” says the Sun, pointing to the government’s plans to run a deficit until 2015. “If they can't find the willpower to rein in spending, the politicians should at least do us all a favour and cut down on the lectures.”