(St. John’s) – With the country’s finance ministers set to meet later this month (December 18-19) in Victoria, CUPE Newfoundland and Labrador President Wayne Lucas is urging Tom Marshall to press the federal government on badly-needed pension reform.
Lucas says, “Our own finance minister has expressed strong support for the idea of reforming the Canada Pension Plan (CPP), just a year ago when the ministers last met.
“Unfortunately,” says Lucas, “what we got from the Harper government instead was so-called ‘pooled pension plans’. These aren’t even mandatory and will do nothing to solve the crisis of retirement security faced by millions of Canadians. The Harper Government has simply kicked the pension can down the road.”
Lucas says, “We know that Minister Marshall understands the importance of fixing this problem. He’s fully aware that 13 million Canadian workers have no workplace pension plan.
“When the provincial ministers meet with Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty out in B.C. on December 18-19, we are counting on Minister Marshall to take a strong position in support of reforming the CPP as the most effective way to solve this crisis,” says Lucas.
For information:
Wayne Lucas
CUPE NL President
(709) 727-2509 (Cell)
John McCracken
CUPE Communications Representative
(902) 455-4180 (o)