OAS is not the Canada Pension Plan (CPP). Today’s retirees have not paid into OAS in proportion to the benefits they now receive – even if they worked hard and paid taxes according to the rules of the day.

In anticipation of the baby boom cohort aging, the government changed CPP so Canadians could collect a benefit relatively proportionate to what they contributed. Sadly, Ottawa didn’t do the same for OAS. It remains a government subsidy paid to whomever is eligible – and eligibility rules are far more generous than for most other cash benefits. The generosity of OAS for affluent retirees is now a primary reason we leave 400,000 seniors in poverty, and rack up large deficits that our kids and future generations will inherit.