OAS growth rejected, saving $16 billion for Canadian taxpayers!
Thank you helping us save Canadian taxpayers $16 billion! Now let's really solve these problems.
For the last five weeks, the Bloc Québécois has held parliament hostage with its ultimatum that Ottawa pass legislation to increase Old Age Security (OAS) payments by $870/year for retirees — regardless of whether they are rich or poor. The BQ threatened to work with opposition parties to topple the Liberal government if action on this demand wasn’t underway by October 29.
This deadline has now come and gone — and the Liberals’ decision to reject the BQ demand is a victory for all Canadians, young and old alike. The Bloc’s bad economic, social and generational policy proposal would leave nearly half a million seniors in poverty, and pass an additional $16 billion price tag primarily to younger generations.
As Gen Squeeze and others have repeatedly argued, there is a better plan. That plan begins with smarter OAS spending that doesn’t ask Canadians to pay more to increase cash benefits for retirees with six figure incomes.
New polling shows that 74% of Canadians, including 76% of seniors, support asking the 20% of retirees who live in households with income of $100,000 or higher to accept smaller OAS payments that would reduce their after-tax income by a few thousand dollars. The savings this generates could be repurposed to give every one of the 469,000 seniors who fall below the official poverty line an extra $5,000/year. This would virtually eliminate seniors’ poverty — with money left over to invest in the wellbeing of their kids and grandkids, and reduce the federal deficit younger generations will inherit.
Together, we’ve crossed the first hurdle en route to our better plan.
Rejecting an additional $16 billion in poorly targeted and costly OAS benefits is a big victory, and we should be proud of our contribution to it. But even as we celebrate this accomplishment, we can’t let up on next steps. Younger Canadians and low-income seniors are still struggling, and we've shown how much more Canada could support them by reforming OAS. Now we need to push federal parties to support our win-win-win plan.
Please join us in telling your MP to support our plan to: Eliminate seniors’ poverty. Help younger generations. Reduce the deficit.