Editorial: The CAG Position Paper on Pensions

Population aging, older workers, retirement, and pensions have moved to centre stage in the current climate of economic woes facing the numerous levels of government in Canada. Social security reform is a high priority on the federal agenda, as witnessed by the recently debated Seniors' Benefit (SB), a cost saving strategy for government, and the newly enacted and more stringent Canada/Quebec Pension Plan (C/QPP). With fiscal pressures resulting from national debt/deficit being pitted against social policies and programs, older Canadians are becoming targeted as social problems. Hence, gerontology is moving from a cloistered discipline to one that is central to public policy issues (Torres-Gil & Puccinelli, 1994). However, we are not taking advantage of the opportunity; as McDonald (1997, p. 393) comments, "there is a pervasive silence across the [Canadian] gerontological landscape" regarding pension questions. This, then, is an opportune time for the Canadian Association on Gerontology to contribute to the public (and political) debate on pensions and to educate and inform on retirement and pension issues. This is not the first time that Canadians have been involved in pension debate and controversy. A generation ago, we were engaged in the Great Pension Debate — the issue then was how to improve the incomes of retired Canadians. Now, the central issue is how to reduce public pensions in order to meet federal debt/deficit reduction goals. As Prince (1996) puts it, we have gone from "expanding coverage" to "heading for cover". Associated with this major transformation is an emerging socio-political discourse about older workers and retirees, a discourse that contains themes of their supposed affluence and their unreasonable burden on the public pension system. While Canadians have long held compassionate views of the elderly, this is beginning to change, as evidenced in three ways. (1) A growing voice, coming largely from wealthier Canadians, states that older people should contribute to reducing our debt/deficit (Ekos Research Associates, Inc., 1995). This view is fuelled by claims from government and business that poverty among the aged has been virtually eradicated and that, since retirees have enough money, we can reasonably expect them to sacrifice in these economic times. For example, the Canadian Institute of Actuaries (1995, p. 17), using the Sarlo measure of Poverty, states that "poverty among the aged has been eradicated". Such views make it easier to politically market reductions in Old Age Security (OAS), the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS), and the CPP.