In support of our seniors

Letters to the Editor -

Dear editor,

The Canada Pension Plan is very misleading when it makes reference to the future of our retired citizens.

You cannot depend on your Employees Pension Plan fully, as it has been courting with the Canada Pension Plan that we all know as Old Age Security, once you are the ripe age of 65. If you are looking forward to retiring soon, you better think twice if you haven't invested your money over the years very wisely. The Canada Pension you receive will only help to pay for a month's supply of groceries, and it may not do that if you don't scrimp and save. We are all made to believe that the work pension and old age security together would be wonderful - everyone would be on a highway travelling towards a ribbon of moonlight.

There will be no ribbon of moonlight for many Canadians, and the proof of the pudding is now a reality. Once you are eligible to receive the amount allocated to every pensioner, that amount is automatically deducted from your work pension every month. So, if you are to receive the regular peanut package of $595 from Canada, the same amount will be deducted from your work pension. The Liberal Party of Canada is talking about a great future pension program for future Canadians. They are not referring to those who have just turned 65, who are having difficulties to survive because of the escalating cost of living, and their pensions are not helping them.

Canada does not take care of its senior citizens when it comes to those on a fixed income. They can't live on it after paying taxes all their lives. It is also now a known fact that others coming to Canada over the past 20 years get a much better pension than our own people who have built this great country of ours. They are cared for much better than our own people, and they get better monetary compensations. Our politicians have a deaf ear to this problem and it needs immediate attention.

I have written and presented this problem at meetings to the federal

Liberals and Conservatives in Ottawa several times, and they looked so puzzled, as if senior citizens did not exist anymore. I mentioned the problems of the pensioners and they seem to think it was an agreement by the employers and Canada Pension, for the employees to pay back funding once they became 65. It was new to the ears of the hundred or more seniors I have talked to over the past five years. The senior citizens of today were the work horses of the past. They are now treated like second-class citizens.

We are in for a rude awakening very soon, knowing there is very little support for those over 65 in the upcoming federal budget, and perhaps many more down the road. There are those seniors who have not had the opportunity to invest like many others who have had big salaries over the years. When you take a stroll along our city sidewalks and parks and see senior citizens checking the garbage cans for bottles and tins, there must be something wrong with our system somewhere. The government in Ottawa wants to do something about better pensions for those already employed, but what do they plan to do for those I have mentioned? It is a very simple problem, not complex, just listen to the pensioners - many are becoming desperate. How desperate are the politicians in getting their support in the upcoming federal election? The lifelong contributors to this country are the ones suffering and living in poverty. They won't come out and demonstrate because they have too much pride. The stepping stones to the survival of our seniors are to give them a decent pension that they can live on, and enjoy their golden years.

Frank Blackwood

Richmond Hill, Ont.