BC FORUM News - from The Advocate, Winter 2015

Reflections on our new federal government and the tasks ahead

By Diane Wood, President, BC FORUM

This is a very interesting honeymoon. Our new prime minister, brimming with sincerity, is ushering in a welcome measure of openness and transparency.

I find it quite remarkable, for example, that even while Justin Trudeau was working on the demanding task of getting a new government up and running, he made time to meet with the labour movement. (See story page 8).

In addition, Trudeau has instructed the new Liberal cabinet ministers to implement the party’s platform promises, and actually made these mandate letters public.

This is a breath of fresh air. If it continues, there are clear grounds for optimism that the dark deeds of the Harper government will be undone, and that a more civil society will begin to take shape in Canada.

Fair elections

In our cover story in this edition, CLC president Hassan Yussuff outlines key Liberal promises that are important to working people, retired workers and our families.

I want to draw your attention to two areas where we will have to be vigilant and active to get the positive change we need.

The first is fair elections. Mr. Trudeau consistently promised this would be the last election decided by the unrepresentative first-past-the- post system.

Many people assumed that meant proportional representation is on its way. In fact, the Liberal party supports “ranked ballots.” This system is even more unfair and unrepresentative than first-past-the-post. (See our article on page 9.)

A preferential ballot system was imposed by the Liberal-Conservative Coalition government in BC in 1952, with the express purpose of preventing the election of the CCF, forerunner to the NDP. On a standard ballot, the CCF would have placed first. Instead, the ranked ballot changed history with the election of a Social Credit minority.

“Enhancing” the CPP

For many years, BC FORUM has been working with our allies and the labour movement to push for significant improvements in the Canada Pension Plan.

We know that a small increase in contributions, phased in over a number of years, will double the benefits to today’s workers, most of whom do not have a pension plan. That’s the goal of the CLC proposal that we support.

The Liberal platform says, “We will work with the provinces and territories, workers, employers, and retiree organizations to enhance the Canada Pension Plan.”

We can all support that sentiment, but “enhance” is a tricky word. It may or may not mean what we hope it means. (When it’s used by the BC Liberals, it usually means something is about to get worse.)

The task of fixing Canada’s retirement crisis falls to the new federal finance minister, Bill Morneau – and that gives some cause for concern.

Morneau was among a group of advisors who helped shape the coming Ontario Retirement Pension Plan, which will exclude every worker in the public sector, employees of companies that have pension plans, and those who work in federally regulated sectors like banks.

This is not what we need at the federal level. Workers change jobs often these days. Only an expanded CPP can cover them throughout their careers. In addition, excluding employees who have company pension plans would give those companies a perverse incentive to shut down those plans.

This issue will need careful monitoring in the months ahead!