CAUT Policy Statement

All Canadians have the right to a secure and decent standard of living in retirement. This is best guaranteed by strengthening Canada’s public pension system – the Canada and Quebec Pension Plans, Old Age Security and the Guaranteed Income Supplement.

The Canada and Quebec Pension Plans cover virtually all Canadians and provide them with benefits that are indexed, secure and portable across jobs. However, benefits remain too low to provide an adequate income in retirement. CAUT supports a doubling of CPP and QPP benefits financed by a modest and phased-in increase of employer and employee contributions.

Old Age Security and the Guaranteed Income Supplement are the basic building blocks of Canada’s retirement income system and are an important source of income for today’s seniors, particularly women. Benefits need to be raised in order to lift all seniors out of poverty. CAUT supports an increase in the maximum combined OAS and GIS benefits to an amount at least equivalent to Statistics Canada’s after-tax low-income cut-off for single individuals.

Approved by the CAUT Council, May 2014.