Remarks to Hands Off Our Canada Pension Plan Rally
First I would like to thank the women of SAFE [Save Alberta's Future for Everyone] who have worked very hard to bring us together today. They have participated in many actions against the anti-social agenda and let people know about their work. Particularly they have succeeded in bringing us together to say Hands Off Our Pensions!
This week is Seniors' Week in Alberta. It is a fitting time to put
forward our stand which is: defend the pensions we have and fight for
pensions for all. What we urgently need in Alberta and from coast to
coast to coast is secure pensions at retirement to ensure a Canadian
standard of
living.
It is also very fitting that today, during Seniors' Week, we are together demanding retirement security, retirement dignity for everyone. And we are here because we want no part of, and are opposed to, the UCP's proposal to take Albertans out of the CPP [Canada Pension Plan] and form an Alberta Pension Plan (APP).
Many of us here today are retirees. We know what it means to live on a retirement income. We know how crucial it is to have security in retirement. We know what a struggle it is to pay the bills, particularly now with inflation and the skyrocketing prices of all essentials in life. We are well aware that it is women seniors who live alone who are most vulnerable to living in poverty. It is no accident that it is women seniors who have brought us together today to demand security for all in retirement and demand that this government halt its plans to jeopardize our retirement security.
Our organization, the Congress of Union Retirees of Canada, is made up of union retirees. Many of us have work pensions as well as OAS and CPP. While still in the workforce we experienced an ongoing assault on our defined benefit pensions and their replacement with insecure defined contribution plans. An untold number of workers live with the consequence of this attack on our pensions and retirement security. The vast majority of seniors have no work pensions at all.
A major concern for ourselves and for all working people in this province and across the country is the right to security in retirement, and that the care that seniors require is guaranteed.
This government's proposal to withdraw from the CPP and form an Alberta pension plan, despite their claims, has nothing whatsoever to do with improving the lives of pensioners but everything to do with establishing an Alberta pension plan as part of the battle of competing private interests for control over wealth created by the working people.
Today's rally is part of the non-stop opposition by the working people of Alberta to say No! to an APP and to say, Hands Off Our Pensions! Today is a further opportunity for all of us to show that we have no intention of allowing this government led by a premier who in her own words said she would like to get her hands on " the pot of money" from pension contributions from workers who have lived or worked in Alberta to do so.
To put our retirement security in the hands of an APP created by any government is both unacceptable and, to say the least, very risky. It also would risk the retirement security of our younger generation.
Since the Alberta Federation of Labour initiated a petition campaign to say Hands Off Our Pensions!, tens of thousands of individuals and organizations have tried to join telephone "town halls" to express their views, written letters, participated in pension town halls organized by opposition MLA's and made phone calls to their MLAs to say No! Far from being convinced by the claim that Alberta workers would be more secure in retirement if an APP replaced the CPP, workers have responded by saying No!
We must not permit this issue to divide our ranks as all of us want what is best for working Albertans. The danger comes when those with positions of power and privilege steal pension funds to hand them over to narrow private interests to line their pockets, for example by using pension funds to provide the infrastructure the monopolies require, to privatize public services, or to further integrate Canada into the U.S. war economy.”
We must control our pension funds which must be used to make sure everyone is guaranteed security in retirement. The federal government itself is using the Canada Pension Fund to further the narrow private interests it serves. Neither level of government upholds our security in retirement because they are intent on pushing an anti-social agenda. We must unite in action and take up the fight for pensions for all from our own vantage point so that the vast amounts of money pension funds contain can be put to work to satisfy our needs, not those of narrow private interests in the name of high ideals.
The consistent stand of Alberta workers through all the attacks launched by one government after the other, no matter what political party was in power, has been Defend the Pensions We Have! Fight for Pensions for All! Workers consider it the responsibility of all working people to ensure that society looks after its seniors with the respect and humanity they deserve, ensuring their security and a dignified life in retirement.
This article was published in
Volume 54 Number 5 - June 2024
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2024/Articles/M5400510.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca