Le texte en français suivra.

Prime Minister Harper announced to his billionaire friends in Davos his intention to make changes to Canada's retirement system. True to form, Stephen Harper circumvented the parliamentary process to make an announcement that would radically transform our social safety net.

It might have been a good idea to have a national discussion on Canada's pensions system, at this time. The destructive impact of the stock market implosion of 2008 and the bitter experience of the Nortel retirees should have put Canadians' retirement income squarely on the policy front burner.

It would seem an opportune and appropriate time to consider our options, as a country, 45 years after the creation of the Canada and Quebec pension plans.

There are many questions we could consider.

How do we go about guaranteeing pension income for those who are not covered by the current plans?

How do we move toward a dignified retirement for those who are covered by public plans, but have little or no other source of retirement income?

When it comes to the Canada Pension Plan, a major talking point from the right is that the CPP has "unfunded liabilities," with the implication that it is not affordable and financially unsustainable. This is nonsense, a scare tactic based on an accounting fiction that counts only future expenditures but does not count future revenues.

For example, John Robson writes in the Ottawa Sun just the other day:

The case for expanding benefits under the CPP as a needed response to the crisis of private pensions continues to win expert support -- even as the financial industry and small business lobbies continue to fight real pension reform tooth and nail.