The President of the Canadian Labour Congress, Ken Georgetti, says the federal government is making a big mistake in promoting Pooled Registered Pension Plans (PRPPs)

 as a solution to the pension crisis in Canada.  Georgetti says improved CPP is the best way to provide retirement security.

Unions across Canada shared similar opinions.  George Doubt, TWU National President remarked, “It’s time that the Harper government start to listen to what Canadians want instead of rewarding his Tory friends in the financial services industry.”

In a press release by the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) sent out November 17, 2011, Gil McGowen, president of the AFL, likened the Harper’s PRPPs legislation to “using a squirt gun to put out a forest fire.”  McGowan went on to call PRPPs “a betrayal of working Canadians and a gift to financial institutions.”

PRPPs are privately administered workplace pension plans that resemble group RRSPs.  Unlike the CPP:

• They will be unable to provide a secure, predictable benefit in retirement, indexed against inflation, until death;
• They won’t require employers to contribute one cent;
• They will not be able to match the CPP’s very low cost;
• They will lack the CPP’s survivor and disability benefits;
• And it will be a long time, if ever, before they can match the CPP’s universal portability, in which the pension follows the workers no matter where he or she is employed.

At the provincial finance ministers meeting in December 2010, the majority of the provinces pressed the federal government to follow a dual track on pension reform that included examining proposals to expand the CPP.  The labour movement along with citizens and retirees’ groups continue to advocate for a doubling of future CPP benefits that would be paid for by a modest, phased-in increase in CPP contributions paid for equally by workers and their employers.