The Pension Problem – Canadian Pension is a disaster waiting to happen

BY MICHAEL THOMAS

“The reason why there is so much pressure on Europe and Germany in particular, and we learned this from interviewing two former investment bankers, is because Europe is completely broke. The European Central Bank is completely broke, and the European Pension Fund is completely empty,” said Dr. Reiner Fuellmich.

“If people find out about this,” Fuellmich said, “that there may be a problem with their pension, then of course, they will know who is responsible it is the “Davos clique,” it is the Great Reset people, so they are keeping us under a lot of pressure so we won’t find out, and they are hoping that as many people as possible would get vaccinated by the fall.

They are also hoping that those vaccinated at that point probably won’t be able to defend themselves anymore.”

Those are the words of international trial lawyer Dr. Reiner Fulllmich, a man who has successfully sued large fraudulent corporations like Volkswagen and Deutsche Bank. His worldwide network of lawyers has listened to a hundred experts from every field of science. They have collected undeniable evidence that the Covid pandemic is in fact a planned criminal operation.

Pension plans for some people have long been a guessing game, but at present, even those who believe that they are on the safe ground from a pension point of view in Canada could soon find out otherwise.

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) published its first instalment of research, and the picture is not exactly a pretty one for would-be pensioners at all.

In short, here is what the research found. “Canada’s pension system is a disaster waiting to happen. Public sector pension plans at all levels of government are massively underfunded which will demand higher taxes and strain Canada’s economy.

There is also a widening pension gap between Canadians in the public sector and those in the private sector. This will create resentment as more and more public servants retire earlier and more comfortably than anyone else in society. Continuing on this track is unsustainable and unfair. Major reforms are clearly needed.” 

In detail, this research discovered that it was not exactly easy to get government records on pension plans, and that whatever they obtained was not put together in very understandable terms at all.

The research also discovered that the figures highlighted were not sound but were more predictions based on what could happen with investment funds as opposed to what was in cash.

This in turn left the researchers to question how Canada’s government plans to doll out the pension of most of its public servants, and some of the answers could be as simple as off the backs of the working class, by raising taxes, higher contributions from government employees, reduced pension benefits for government retirees, lower inflation/wage growth, or higher fund rates of return.

The fifth path is impossible for fund managers to control, barring a magical resurgence in fund earnings; the burden will ultimately fall on taxpayers and government employees.

The pension problem is universal it seems, across the border in the US Jonn Mauldin a financial writer, publisher, and New York Times bestselling author had this to say of the American pension plan.

“A decade ago, I pointed out that public pension funds were $2 trillion underfunded and getting worse. More than one person told me that couldn’t be right. They were correct: It was actually much worse. It has gotten to $2 trillion and much worse in just a few years.”

Again, just like the Canadian research team found out, Mauldin spoke of how the pension plan in the US is based on assumption too.

“Almost all public pension funds assume investment returns somewhere around 7% and some as high as 8%. That’s highly unlikely due to the debt we’ve accumulated, and debt is a drag on future growth.”

He concluded by saying, “The most common solution to this problem so far has been cutting services in the hope no one notices.”

When David Payne, the Staff Economist for The Kiplinger Letter and a NABE-certified Business Economist was asked how big the pension problem is he said, “Only three states have fully funded pension funds: Oregon, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. 

The rest of the states are partially funded, some very low, some medium, and some a bit more reasonable, so always have a contingency plan in case benefits are cut,” Payne advised.

American Enterprise Institute resident scholar Andrew G. Biggs believes that this was a long time coming. “The coronavirus wasn’t predicted, but for years, outsiders have warned that public-sector pensions have contributed too little, taken too much investment risk, and failed to enact sufficiently far-reaching reforms. It was only a matter of time before something went wrong.”

Back at home here in Canada, when one looks at the kind of pension the average Canadian MP takes home annually it’s almost like comparing a dog to an elephant, with the pittance the average taxpayer gets after working until age sixty-five or older.

Here are a few of the Canadian “fat cats” and the pension lane that they are running in.

• Steven Blaney: annual pension = $101,000; pension to age 90 = $4,404,300
• Wayne Easter, annual pension = $138,400; pension to age 90 = $2,805,800
• Peter Kent, annual pension = $100,500; pension to age 90 = $1,282,300
• Geoff Regan, annual pension = $147,400; pension to age 90 = $5,159,000

As if this was not enough, members of parliament received two pay raises during the last year and a half, ranging from an extra $6,900 for a backbench MP to $13,800 for Justin Trudeau.

Voices like the CTF Canadian Taxpayers Federation are calling for politician’s pay and pension reform, in light of the $1-trillion federal debt. Reforms should include transitioning the MP pension plan to a matching RRSP-style pension, ending severance payments, and “paying back” the pandemic pay hikes.

Below is a list of defeated or retired Canadian MPs and what they stand to gain or are receiving in terms of pension and severance calculations from the taxpayers.

http://www.taxpayer.com/media/2021-MP-Pension-Severance-CTF.pdf

It is extremely important to remember that while all this is happening with Canadians from a pensioner’s point of view, Canadians who refuse to be a part of the FVS (Fake-Vaccination Scheme) may not have any pensions to receive whatsoever if the government gets their way.

Just recently, Canada’s Prime Minister came on television and outlined several things that the average un-injected Canadian will no longer be able to participate in if he gets his way.

Can anyone imagine working most of your life for a company, or the government only to lose the security that you have not only worked for but also paid into?

Time to start asking our government some questions; it may not matter to some of you now, but at some point, it will.