Wayne Marston, MP, Hamilton East-Stoney Creek

In a recent speech at the World Economic Forum, in Davos, Switzerland, the prime minister suggested that, as a part of a broad social “transformation,” the Canadian retirement system would undergo significant changes, with the Prime Minister’s Office suggesting that the age of eligibility for old age security would be increased from 65 to 67.

A firestorm of criticism ensued, naturally.

Mr. Harper has, of course, been anxiously back-tracking on his statement since then, with the full might of the PMO being used to delicately pry his wing-tipped shoe from his mouth.

“We will ensure any changes are done with substantial notice and adjustment period and in a way that does not affect current retirees or those close to retirement,” said the prime minister.

No details have been released, however, about the fate of the generations to come.

To the credit of Canadian seniors, they just aren’t buying it.

In an impressive display of inter-generational solidarity, seniors took to the talk radio phone lines, signed and circulated petitions, wrote passionate letters to government ministers. The refrain of “leave OAS alone!” rang throughout the land.

Still, the government continues to claim that OAS is unsustainable. It says it commissioned experts to review the program and they  came to this conclusion.

In reality, these experts said no such thing. According to the government’s own figures, the OAS-GIS is easily sustainable and is actually projected to decrease in cost, relative to the size of the economy, in the long-run.

In fact, here’s what Edward Whitehouse, leader of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Pension Team, has to say:
“Canada does not face major challenges of financial sustainability with its public pension schemes…Long-term projections show that public retirement-income provision is financially sustainable. Population aging will naturally increase public pension spending, but the rate of growth is lower and the starting point better than many OECD countries.”

Readers will know that I’ve been warning you for a number of years about how the reduction of federal revenues caused by Stephen Harper’s corporate tax cuts will have to be made up somewhere. It appears we now know where they’re to be made up – from programs upon which our poorest seniors rely.

It’s no wonder Mr. Harper didn’t campaign on this issue during the last election or he wouldn’t now be living at 24 Sussex Dr.

Over the next two weeks, I (as the NDP pension critic) and other MPs will be fanning out across the country to hear from Canada’s seniors about what they think of these proposed Conservative cuts.

In closing, I’ll remind readers of a similar instance, when in 1995, former Ontario education minister John Snobelen, was caught on video arguing about how the PC government needed to bankrupt the education system, so as to create a “useful” crisis in order to justify further “reforms.” Like the Harris government then, Harper’s Conservatives are manufacturing a crisis in OAS to justify cutting a program that they don’t like.