Pension Ponzi How Public Sector Unions are Bankrupting Canada's Health Care, Education and Your Retirement

Author: Bill Tufts; Lee Fairbanks
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 9781118098738
Published In: October 2011
Format: Paperback , 256 pages
Jurisdiction: Canada ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only

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The vast majority of Canadians are blissfully unaware that every man, woman and child in Canada now owes a $35,000 share of government debt and must pay this back, with interest! Make no mistake, this debt will change our country and affect every single Canadian in the decades to come. You may think you have planned for your retirement and are safe, but the government must find a way to recover this borrowed money, and they can only do that by raising your taxes and reducing your hard-earned benefits. How did this debt come about, and why can't we simply pay it off?

Pension Ponzi lays the blame squarely at the feet of the politicians who refused to stand up to Canada's public sector unions. The fact is Canada's public sector, which accounts for 20% of the workforce, has been grossly overpaid relative to their counterparts in the private sector with cushy pensions paid for with your taxes and new debt. There is no denying that the country does not have the financial resources to ensure that the next generation of Canadians will have the same standard of living as the ones before it-or to support our growing seniors population. Meeting our public sector pension obligations will break the current social safety net that is a pillar of the Canadian way.

Can you escape this bleak future? Can you afford to live longer? Nationally-recognized pension expert Bill Tufts and award-winning journalist Lee Fairbanks explore how this catastrophe came about and then suggest ways that government can fix what's broken, and how you as an individual can protect yourself from the financial calamity that is about to engulf Canada.
Foreword v

Introduction 1

Chapter 1: The Elephant in the Room 13

Chapter 2: The Devil is in the Details 31

Chapter 3: The Role of the Unions 47

Chapter 4: Politicians and Bureaucrats at the Trough 69

Chapter 5: Ontario Hydro: Power to the People 85

Chapter 6: Education: The New Sacred Cow 101

Chapter 7: Police Pensions 115

Chapter 8: How Much Do You Really Owe? 131

Chapter 9: A Ten-Step Plan for Pension Reform 145

Chapter 10: Steering the Titanic 157

Endnotes 177

Index 199
Bill Tufts has been helping companies with their employee pension plans for 15 years and is one of Canada's leading experts on public sector pension reform. He speaks regularly on pension matters and has consulted for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. He was a participant of the Ontario Government Round Table on Retirement Security and testified at the House of Commons Standing Committee on Human Resources. Bill is regularly interviewed by the Globe and Mail, CBC, Toronto Star, Hamilton Spectator, Montreal Gazette and the Wall Street Journal.

Lee Fairbanks began his writing career with the Globe and Mail, first achieving notoriety by exposing the source of the bullets that killed Canadian peacekeepers in Cyprus in 1974. In 1980 he received the Walter Brebner Award for Best Editorial in Ontario as Editor of the Milton Tribune, for an editorial about ethics in journalism. He is an award-winning playwright and the author of seven plays and Keep Canada Slim, a book on healthy weight loss.