Liberal finance critic Scott Brison revealed elements of the plan to Postmedia’s Lee Berthiaume in London, where the party is holding a caucus retreat. Referring to a recently-announced agreement between the Quebec government and the Caisse de Dépot et Placement, he suggested the Liberals see Canadian pension plans as a convenient source of money to finance the party’s ambitious infrastructure program.
And yet, in the past, our CPP contributions were simply saved as Canada Savings Bonds. In other words, politicians chose how to invest our savings… so Trudeau Jnr is simply suggesting a return to the past. Nowadays, the CPPIB and the Caisse are supposedly “independent bodies”. Is that better? BTW, in Norway, the State pension fund has $1 trillion in its portfolio, for a country half the size of Quebec. Socialism can be very successful….
So, if Barack Obama had a son, he’d sound like … get ready for it … drum roll … JUSTIN TRUDEAU !
That’s right folks, step right up, it’s redistribution time again. Just in time to force those dollars that you’ve worked so hard for out of your pocket and drop them into the pocket of someone who didn’t work for it.
And they’ll get it FOR FREE!
In the mean time, Justin, who will promise UTOPIA, will turn Canada’s economy into Cuba’s.
rational agression http://waltherpragerandphilosophy1.blogspot.ro/2015/02/rational-aggression.html
And we do not have an open hunting season on these goons?
Were they channeling Paul Martin? It was the pensions he tapped into to balance budgets. If there’s anything we don’t need it’s a pack of dick heads at the till with Ontario on the skids and Alberta set to elect an NDP government.
This is how it starts. Lavish promises about infrastructure projects and the financial returns for investors. Next thing you know, it’s an unfunded future liability. Right now, Canada is one of the few nations with a fully funded national pension plan. Naturally the Liberals plan to change all that.
Methinks the real target isn’t CPP. It seems that the trudeau has taken his cue from europe, where targeting private pensions has been declared a good idea, but only if really, really necessary.
2009: Ireland took Euro4.4bn National Pension Reserve Fund assets to bail out banks
2010: Portugal nationalised pension assets of Portugal Telecom
2010: Ireland took remaining Euro 2.5bn National Pension Reserve Fund assets
2010: France took Euro33bn from its National Reserve Pension Fund
2010: Hungary nationalised individual private pension accounts to reduce state debt
2011: Portugal confiscated pension assets of its largest banks
2012: UK took £24bn of Royal Mail pension assets and reduced current budget deficit
2013: Poland nationalised half private pension assets by confiscating bond holdings
and then we have Greece – where they basically took what they wanted.
But I am sure that Trudeau would only do so, if really, really necessary and not at all that he doesn’t have a clue how to govern.
I am not sure what these jerks in government expect to redistribute. they are now borrowing every day to pay for the idiocy they have already foisted on Canadians.
There are approx. 3.3 working people in Norway per retiree (approx. 800,000 total.)
There are about 350,000 people on disability. This accounts for roughly 15% of the potential workforce and about 1 disabled per 7 people working.
There are roughly 2,5 million in the workforce, including those looking for work (about 90,000.) for a total population: 5 Million people.
Without transfers from the state pension fund (overseas) into the welfare state Norway would be roughly 120 billion kroner in deficit, or around 21 billion US dollars.
GDP Growth in 2011 puts Norway between Iran and Taiwan (25th in ranking.)
A gallon of Gas in Norway costs 9 USD. Pretty high for an oil-producer.
Loaf of bread costs 5 USD.
In Norways 4th largest town a 2 bedroom apartment (550sqft – 800sqft) rents for 2800 USD a month!
Each year you pay tax on your capital. Norwegians paid 21 billion USD in private capital taxes. Private debt makes up for 112% of GDP! That’s 390 billion USD. For each person living on social benefits (including retirees,) there are 2 people working and paying taxes for them. I guess it would be fair to assume that 1 out of the 2 people working for the rest of Norway that they work for the State, thus encouraging its delusional self defeating prophecy that Socialism is a good solution.
Health care in Norway is the difference between a public and private toilet. The public toilet only gets cleaned when people start complaining about it.
Meanwhile, in other news, Canada’s public is fixated on the real important stuff: Miley’s foo-foo and the Habs’ losses.
Harkov, I don’t think you can use Norway as an example. Norway’s government owns 70% of the shares in StatOil, one of the world’s biggest petroleum companies. On a per capita basis the Norwegian government receives more money from oil than Saudi Arabia, thanks mostly to North Sea oil and gas deposits. These funds are used to finance Norwegians socialist lifestyle. Without Statoil, Norway would be Zimbabwe with fjords.
Libs and Dips have been talking in whispers for years about stealing pensions and inheritance – but, they’re you know, just redistributing all that wealth – to their well heeled patrons
And Wynne has already specifically stated that the new Ontario pension plan will be ‘invested’ in infrastructure projects. This pension will not apply to those who have a company pension plan (public service workers, and other established workers with private company planes). Basically she is confiscating from the poorest workers.
Also august 1991, if a pissed off kid with a 22 can take out 75 Norwegians like Brevik did, just wait till the collapse of the ruble causes Vlad to covet that trillion dollars. Vlad will take that country of socialists over in an hour. They’ve been so steeped in cradle to grave there are no job prospects for the young, But they do have this thing called North Sea oil which they are very good at extracting. I’ve been to Norway for 4 monthes of my life, sorry to break it to you, it is far from utopia.
The same plan as Wynne’s Ontario Pension Plan, which I predict will invest heavily in Ontario bonds. IOW just another tax revenue stream for them to stuff into their pockets.
Wonder if Trudeau is getting any really good financial advice from his adviser and financial expert Chrystia Freeland?
Like father, like son.
But the pension scheme will fund infrastructure and ‘green’ public transportation .
What could possibly go wrong ???
Anyways, I find the new and improved child benefit plan very troubling. I’ve seen it before.
It will benefit only those who have children. The single worker and the older worker will end up paying for this. The more kids you have, the more you receive. The less you earn, the more you receive.
Back in the 70’s the USA came up with a plan called ‘Aid for Dependent Children’. Who could argue with that?
It wasn’t too much later that there was an population explosion in the impoverished areas of the country. This program still has repercussions today.
‘Baby Mama’ quickly became THE career choice for many.
Baby Daddy was only necessary for a short time. Very few hung around to participate with the fruit of the BM’s labour pains. The fruit did not ripen well.
If you think single mothers raising children is a problem today, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
Once this plan is put into effect, it will be very difficult to claw back.
It is all sunshine and lollipops to help out families, but the gov’t best tread carefully.
Rare to see this level of candor from Liberals prior to an election. Usually they are smart enough to hide their larcenous plans until after they are elected. This group doesn’t even seem to be that smart.
Obama just lost two sons in texas
Oil and Gas fills Norway’s coffers, not socialism.
Trudeau’s pompous piety showing as he tells us that those who are wealthy always want to share with those who aren’t and he’s going to make that happen. Wonder if he’ll be wearing a Robin Hood getup as he campaigns for the poor and his version of the middle class?
You can trust progressive socialists because they care deeply.
Martin and Chretien cared so much they dipped deeply into Canadian’s UI contributions, appropriating $50+ billion or so to help “balance” the budget.
You can expect the same from Shiny Phony.
The first six months of a Trudeau government may actually be rather agreeable, as it spends wildly on all and everything. After that, the bills will start to come due.
In addition to looting pension funds, a Trudeau government would harm pensioners a second way, by setting off bad inflation (as Pierre Trudeau did – can you say 22% inflation a year?). Pensioners and others on fixed incomes will be royally screwed.
The classic case of such inflation was France, 1945 to 1959. In 1945 [1946?] veterans were granted a pension of about 4000 fr a month. In 1945 that would go a long way to keeping a vet alive. By 1959 it would just about buy a couple of packs of cigarettes.
I regard the second as a certainty with Justin running a government. The first? Quite possible.
Governments need to be kept a long distance away from any and all pension funds. Pension fund boards need to be free of government interference and free to get a maximum return on behalf of those who have contributed their money to the fund not accept a minimum or no return as a government would demand. As someone else expressed this would start with the CPP and move on to finally raiding bank accounts.
The mere suggestion that the left would think this is a good idea is a reason to never vote for them again.
typical Liberals. Steal more of the taxpayer’s money in order to fund something that should already have been adequately funded…and do it in such a way that lets them charge taxpayers even more (tolls) for something they have already paid for twice.
The coulda’ had the astronaut:
http://news.yahoo.com/space-odyssey-cosmic-rays-may-damage-brains-astronauts-194650036.html
…and cut provincial transfer payments as well as defunding the military.The Liberal idea of a balanced set of books was always a shell game.
The Shiny Pony is figuring out which shiny objects he can use to buy the brain-dead vote.
Waif for a carbon tax.
As for Trudeau, how can someone who’s never done an honest day’s work in his life be eligible to be PM?
That’s easy Robert. As long as he’s from the proper family, he was born to rule. Voting for monarchs…welcome to the post imperial world.
What a nightmare…I hope both the NDP and Tories run the video of Junior telling his wife “I was born to do this”…and she had to caution him to “be humble”. He hasn’t been elected and already the divisions amongst Canadians are being encouraged by his policies. Did anyone else notice that he kept looking down to read what the brains if the libs wrote for him as he stumbled through his little show yesterday. Mulcair and Harper will cut him to ribbons in a debate…
The Liberals are proposing to have the pension fund managers “Invest” in these infrastructure projects, They SAY that private pension funds “invest” in capital projects like this all the time – Uh yeah? How do you “invest” in a road or bridge? These are dead loss liabilities which deteriorate and need maintenance – there is NO return on investment (ROI) in paving a public highway or repairing a public bridge – unless it is a toll road or toll bridge?????
After Adscam, Ciprogate and the sponsorship scandals why would any voter allow the klepto Libs near a pension fund? Of course they wouldn’t , that’s why the largest part of Truedough’s so called economic platform is unstated – always remember with liberals it is not what’s printed in the election promise book, it’s what isn’t that will screw you.
No worries he’s only going to tap “rich” pensions.
Tax guru Jack Mintz nailed it in the FP today: “In fact, for family incomes above CAD 45,000, the Liberal plan will raise the marginal tax rate.” That’s right folks, Shiny Pony will save the middle class by taxing them more! When you add in the Ontario tax hikes. we’re back to the good old days of Bob Rae, whose “make the rich pay” plan meant that you were in the 53% tax bracket if you made 50k/yr. Like with Rae’s hare-brained scheme then, when politicians say make the “rich” pay, what ends up happening in practice is that “rich” is (alas) defined as “anyone with a job.” Meanwhile, MPs still get, in addition to their bloated 150k salaries, a CAD 250k “expense allowance” for which they don’t pay tax and for which they don’t even have to provide receipts. My leftard friends keep quoting me Oliver Wendell Holmes’ old line about how taxes are the price we pay for civilization. I always say I’d be happy to pay for civilization at the same price as Holmes – back then, income tax was 10%. At 50%, I don’t think I’m getting value for the money, and would maybe prefer a little anarchy.
The “rich” end up including middle income Canadians because they form the bulk of revenues, pure and simple. The evil 1%, most of whose incomes are clustered around the “rich” $200,000 per year, earn 10% of the national income and pay 25% of the taxes, while creating the vast majority of jobs. The rest is statistical BS; raising marginal tax rates REDUCES marginal tax revenues, in every case. Yes, let’s kill the golden goose. Higher income Canadians, including many in middle income brackets, have tax avoidance options which lower middle income Canadians do not, hence Mintz’s argument families with incomes over $45,000/year will end up paying more. The Grits apparently failed to factor in the Family Tax Cut (FTC) in their comparison with the Tory plan which has already been implemented. As a tax preparer I can assure you it is not only the “rich” who are benefitting. For my clients the FTC averages between $350 and $2000 for family (including working couples) incomes between $55,000 and $75,000 (it tops out at $72,520 for one earner couples). That’s reality, not Liberal projections. There’s no way they will raise their anticipated revenues for families by boosting top marginal rates over 50%; not gonna happen; revenues generally come in around 50% of anticipated revenues, which creates another $1billion revenue shortfall, at least, in the Grit proposal.
I am so glad that little weasel Brison jumped the Conservative ship to the Gliberals. Like LaBimbo Stronach, he is a perfect fit over there.
@August1991, It is not socialism that got them the trillion in the pension fund, it’s the lack of corruption.