Wes Sheridan is still surprised. No, make that perplexed. You can hear it in the PEI finance minister’s voice on the day after the federal government’s abrupt decision to shelve all the work that’s been done on CPP reform. ‘We had full consensus from 10 provinces and three territories to continue work on enhancing the Canadian Pension Plan, and the feds just shut it down,’ Sheridan said Tuesday. ‘That’s never happened in the past.’ Never might be a stretch. But it has taken a few years — seven in fact — for federal-provincial relations to revert back to the barely concealed hostility Canadians had come to expect whenever the two levels of government met, reported Chris Hall of the CBC News early yesterday evening. Just three years ago Jim Flaherty agreed to consider a modest, mandatory increase in CPP premiums to pay for higher retirement benefits in the future. Federal-provincial officials have been working out the exact details ever since. To do nothing, Flaherty said back then, condemned some Canadians to a retirement without enough money to take care of themselves. This week, however, a different story altogether from the federal finance minister after meeting again with his provincial counterparts. He spoke about having had ‘frank discussions’ on CPP reform. Which everyone familiar with Ottawa-speak knows means no progress or agreement, let alone any consensus. Flaherty’s no longer taking the proactive approach he preached back in 2010. His official position on CPP reform after Monday’s one hour discussion is: Not now, perhaps not ever. Years anyway. Don’t ask. Read the full article here. Raymond Matt, CFP, CLU, TEP, CHS
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