Time For The Province To ‘Jump In’ To Pooled Pension Plan
Prince George, BC – With the Pooled Registered Pension Plan Act becoming law this past week, the Prince George Chamber of Commerce is calling on the provincial government to adopt its own PRPP legislation to make such plans a reality.
"It would be a shame to have the Federal Government come so far in pushing PRPPs through, only to be met with a lack of update and interest from the Province in finishing the job and making PRPPs available to BC Businesses," says Chamber CEO, Jennifer Brandle-McCall.
Brandle-McCall says the significance of pooled registered pension plans cannot be understated. She says retirement savings have simply been out of reach for many businesses, due to high management costs. "PRPPs allow Canadian businesses to essentially ‘buy in bulk’ making them much more realistic and affordable."
The Chamber CEO says PRPPs could aid recruitment and retention efforts by small businesses. "Particularly in the northern half of the province where recruiting skilled labour has become a major challenge," says Brandle-McCall. "The ability to offer PRPPs as an attractive benefit when ‘courting’ new employees becomes another tool, especially for small businesses trying to compete for human resources."
Individual provinces still need to pass legislation before the plans can become available and Brandle-McCall says the chamber recognizes the need to put pressure, through political advocacy, on the provincial government to take that step.
Comments
Just one more way for the government to get their hands in your pockets and control more of your money. There will be rules, conditions and restrictions on how much you put in, how much you get out and when you can get it.
Ask anyone who has already tried to get their hands on their Locked-In Pension money before age 55. They could be out of work and on the verge of losing their homes and still can’t access their own money. (Depending on the Pension legislation)
“There will be rules, conditions and restrictions on how much you put in, how much you get out and when you can get it”
Yes, that’s pretty much the definition of a pension plan.
Chester, the current plan for small business people and those that don’t have a pension plan is what? Yeah that’s right poverty unless they were on the ball and put some money away every year. Not something most people are doing these days…..
Yeah it’s not going to be perfect, but it’s much better then letting people go into retirement and trying to make the choice between food, medication or keeping the lights on……
It’s one of the biggest scams to have been perpetrated on the Canadian people since RRSPs were introduced. EVERY dollar paid into a ‘pension plan’ like that is a dollar that has already been ‘costed’ into the price of some good or service.
Its diversion into a ‘pension plan’ means there’s goods and services for consumption on the market with a ‘price’ on them in dollars, but no actual equivalency in ‘dollars’ still in the hands of consumers to effect their purchase.
Unless they go into debt, and their banker creates some more dollars for them. Which they have to pay back, with interest. If they can.
What’s worse is that the premise behind a ‘pension plan’ is that the dollars it removes from the economy will be re-invested. And this creates ANOTHER set of ‘costs’ but no fresh purchasing power to liquidate BOTH them and the previous set of ‘costs’ that money was diverted from .
Small wonder that overall debt growth is exponential, far outpacing gains in productivity that investment has enabled. With Canadians on average over $ 1.53 in hock for every $ 1.00 left them in disposable income (after all the deducts, including those for ‘pension’ come off your paycheque) a proposal like this will just end up tightening the financial noose a little tighter around the necks of all of us.
mwk, the employer and employee still have to put money into the plan. There is no free ride here. And, there is no way it will be a defined benefit plan either. Those days are gone.
Everything will be determined by how much you invest and what the return will be on your investment. This is what the major problem is now, interest rates are the lowest in our lifetimes, bond yields are also the lowest in our lifetimes and dividends are in the 3% to 4% range. You cannot plan on much growth on your money at these rates.
Personally, I prefer to set aside my own money without yet one more set of controls over it. There is so little we have control over now. They want all of it. Who is they you ask? Government or the bankers.
The only sure thing about this scheme is that the government will screw it up, like everything else they meddle in. There are a multitude of ways for people to build their own pension plan, with the help of financial planners, and/or any of the big banks. You must have the discipline to put money away every month, however little.
Start now.
metalman.
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