However, I very much oppose the requirement to encourage private pension provision and to ensure that, on average, public sector pensions are no more generous than comparable private sector pensions.

However, historically, the FTQ has always believed that private pension plans are the union's solution to a public pension system which falls short.

Sources of income vary for seniors, and may include earnings from work, private pension benefits, CPP benefits, RRSP withdrawals, other investments, Old Age Security (OAS) and the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS).

25. Recognises the fact that public pension systems strengthen social solidarity and are the responsibility of the Member States and that safeguarding these systems should be a political priority; believes that greater use of alternatives to state-funded pensions, such as supplementary schemes, could be a viable alternative; points out that private pensions could include occupational supplementary pension schemes by employers or other collective organisations and associations and individual supplementary pensions based on savings; emphasises that the existence of private pensions would increase the need for the appropriate regulation ...[+++]of private pension funds, the portability of such pensions and the promotion and continued modernisation (including more flexibility) of these alternatives; within this framework, believes that the risk should be taken into account that women in the context of the existing public pension system might lose insurance coverage if private provisions are to replace this system, but that this risk can be reduced by crediting pension entitlements for maternity leave, parental leave and breaks from work for personal reasons;

Old age these days no longer means poverty, because statutory public pension schemes and the private occupational pension schemes and private insurance policies that supplement them are a guarantee to many Europeans that they can maintain their standard of living even after retirement.

Mandatory retirement is particularly hard on women, visible minorities, aboriginal persons, and persons with disabilities, according to Time for Action, the document that's in appendix A. They say that women tend to work in sectors where employer pensions are not available and are more likely to work part-time and earn considerably less than men and are therefore doubly disadvantaged: they have no or very little access to CPP or RRSPs or private pensions, and no income, and are in real risk of being forced into poverty as a result of mandatory retirement.