With Canada Pension Plan expansion on the agenda as federal and provincial finance ministers meet at Meech Lake, CBC’s the Current interviewed MLI senior fellow Philip Cross as part of a program dedicated to the issue. On the morning of Dec. 16, 2013, the Current broadcast a discussion with PEI Finance Minister Wes Sheridan, Kevin Sorenson, Federal Minister of State for Finance, and Cross, who is former chief economic analyst at Statistics Canada. Cross questions the need for a major expansion of CPP. He pointed out that since we’re talking about 20-30 years down the road, “we don’t know what’s going to happen over that time”. If the age of retirement continues to creep up, for example, “that’s going to eliminate a lot of these problems,” says Cross. “… It’s hard enough predicting what’s going to happen in the next couple of years”.
“The ideal option is for people to work more,” says Cross. “… We should be looking at ways to keep people in the work force”.
To listen to the full segment click here.
