Viikkosanomat, September 22, 1986

              Ottavva-provinc- es boost private pensions
By BRUCE MAGNUSON
Senior citizen pensions have become
the target of those vvith povverful political
and economic clout who would like to
emasculate and vveaken universal sbcial
programs
Canada' s "voice of business" Journal
the Globe and Mail has used its voice to
attack the pension system One edit
supporting moves by (then) finance
minister Michael Wilson to de-ind- ex Old
Age Security payments charged "the
big eater is our huge and loose old age
security system How long can
shoddy generalizations about the aged
stand in the way of this program reform?
Intelligent cuts can also be made in other
social programs "
Later under "Indexing and the aged"
the Globe added: "This black sheep is
now consuming $135-billio- n — up a
robust nine per cent over last year
This is the political black hole into which
the Government fell in its first budget"
Öpinions like these vvhich have found
favor in Ottawa are a cause for concern
for seniors and will be at the forefront of
the annual convention of the National
Pensioners and Senior Citizens Federa-tion
when it meets in Lethbridge Alberta
Sept 10-1- 2
Norwegian have blunt words Britain's Thatcher
By Chris Mosey
Special to The Star
OSLO — It's shaping up as a showdown
of the Iron Ladies
British Premier Margaret Thatcher vvill
be in tovvn this week for talks vvith Nor-way- 's
Socialist Prime Minister Gro Har-lem
Bruntland
It's a confrontation eagerly avvaited in
the Norwegian capital
"I wouldn't miss it for the vvorld" For-eign
Minister Knut Frydenlund told visit-in- g
foreign journalists "They are both
pretty tough women" He thought for a
moment and then added smiling "
Tougher than most men thafs for sure"
One of the major points of contention
vvill be the weather Brundtland will deliv- -
er a stern warning that Britain must cut
industry These North of
words hardly
Thatcher belng
expected —-
of North
lation
Woman heads Japan socialists
TOKYO (Special) — For the first in
Japanese politics a woman has elected
head of a major political party a count re-veal- ed
yesterday Angeles Times re-port- ed
In the aftermath of an election defeat
which created the crisis Japan So-cialist
party has faced in its 31 history
Takako 57 defeated Tetsu 58 by a
eastiy
urden
Paul II was high
rhetorical flight last week warn-in- g
listeners about the presence
of the devil in world Satan
Pope is "a cosmic liar
murderer" an spir-i- t
a malevolent power "tempt-in- g
to evil" the anti-Chri- st
a lion a dragon a serpent
Weil there he crossed over
the Silvano Traisci vice-preside- nt
of Italy's National
Association the Protection of
Animals immediately called oa
the Pope to stop "involving de- -
fenceless species of animals irC
theological
Lions snakes have
I -
The Old Aged Security pension is the
keystone and foundation of the Canadian
pension system It is paid out of general
revenue collected by the federal
government relatively fevv vvho do
not need it can refrain from applying and
if they do it must be declared as part of
their taxable income
The otherleg of pension income the
Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) is
a non-taxab- le government handout sub-je- ct
to a welfare mea-sur- e
which has to be applied for each
year makes the applicant a ward of the
and a second class citizen
Concern for pensioner security has
spread Even a semi-offici- al body like the
National Advisory Council on Aging let
it be knovvn in a letter to Wilson it
vvas greatly troubled by his budget re-feren- ce
to the future restructuring of so-cial
programs "In acontext vvhere many
in business are crying for major cuts in
Canada's social programs this reference
to future restructuring is not reassuring
to older Canadians' ' wrote Yhetta Gold
NACA president
Pension reform has been on the pro-vincial-fede-ral
agenda According to
press reports agreement has been
reached on earlier vesting or locking in
to
to
to
in
closer to the of going into the on even
bv yes" he said vvill be
a in in able to stand up m
hope of pushing up prices Norwegian
energy minister Arne Oien has said he vvill
invoke a government decree if necessary
to the oil cut produc-tion
Ali this is anathema to Thatcher vvho
abhors controls on the free market
on a purely praetical jt is also
unclear the unilateral Norvve--
Statf--
jord vvhere Britain and Norway co-oper-- ate
on
"VVe don't expect Britain lo applaud our
move" Oien admitted "But vve have told
them can go through vvith any unilater-al
action does not hurt Britain eco- -
back on sulphur emissions from its heavy nomically and not the capaci- -
across the Sea ty the reservoirs"
to fall in acid räin and acid snovv poison- - Such are likely to please
ing Norwegian lakes and rivers who is not used to told shc
The fur is also to fly when the can take it or leave it by anyone let
subject Sea oil comes up for alone a small country like Norway (popu- -
cussion four
is now preparing to move But Oien is thai ih
time
been
vote
the Los
the
-- year
Doi Ueda
Pope John
the
the said
and
men
line
for
your
and enough
The
means test This
state
that
But basis
what
drift
lfcJ) V v4
In Good
Company
The Spanish
El Pais reports that in
Forli Italy when three
girl inmates
failed to report back
evening it vvas vvith dif-ficulty
that the police
tracked them down— after
much searching— to a bar
vvhere their prison govern-o- r
had invited them for a
irink
without getting cold
stares from those who took the
pontiff 's words to heart
Just think: if he'd
the devil to a baby seal this
could have run weeks
a
aVytJfSHö
'1W
sss'
of benefits so mobile employees vvill
not lose pension entitlements when
they change jobs the of
earned benefits extension of pension
coverage part-tim- e employees split-tin- g
of pension credits on marriage
breakdown benefits flexible
retirement age minimum employer
financing of defined benefit pensions and
greater disclosure of pian information to
employees and beneficiaries
But while Ontario claims favor
some form of indexing protect buying
povver of private pension plans it has not
included such a provision in its draft bill
to revise the Pension Benefits Act be-cau- se
the federal and provincial govern-ment
s could not agree on mandatory in-flati- on
protection Monte Kvvinter On-tario
Minister of Financial Institutions
says: "I am sympathetic to the need for
infiation protection (but) the
Act is a consensus document
and the prime goal ali this is to en-coura- ge
expansion of private pension
coverage "
is interesting in ali this is that the
two levels of government federal and
provincial apparently found no difficulty
in reaching a consensus that vvill double
yes than double the contributions
policiej of the Organization battle terms
Petroleum Exporting Countries order- - "Oh ":he certainly
ing unilateral cut production the to Thatcher I looking
force companies to
effect
that
doej impair
dis--
million)
Norway confident Brundtland
landslide
unclean
open-priso- n
that
survivor
Pension
Benefits
What
more
forward to their meeting vvith some ex- - citement"
Another person vvho has many
differences vvith the prime minister but no
doubt about her toughness is her
Arne Olav Brundtland is a leading mem-be- r
of Oslo's establishment
senior research fellovv in strategic Studies
of a magazine published by
gian cut would have on fields like the Norwegian Institute of International
we
newspaper
one
problems
compared
for
husband
Conservative
editor-in-chi- ef
Affairs and eolumniM for several news- -
papers
vf ' i
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--Ze&l ti 4— "r- - - J - T'-i- irj m-aäT- JB
V- - tr--j
4XUU-- ' J rfizrik
1 h
--"J kXHJ
JOSEPH ELZEAR BERNIER
Arctic explorer established Canadian
sovereignty over the Arctic
Archipelagotothe90°N parallel
Samantha's mother
sues for $50 million
BOSTON — Attorneys for
Samantha Smith's mother filed a
$50 million lawsuit yesterday
against the airline operating the
commuter plane that crashed
nearly 13 months ago killing the
schoolgirl her father and six
others
13 had attracted na-tional
attention by writing at her
mother Jane's suggestion to then-Sovi- et
leader Yuri Andropöv
about her fears of the possibility of
nuclear war Andropöv replied by
inviting the Maine girl to visit his
country vvhich she and her famjly
did in 1983
Meaningful
Coincidence
"The War Against Child-ron- —
South Africa's Young-e- st
Victims" A report un-der
this title prepared by
a group of US lavvyers
advocating human rights
cites plentiful evidence to
show that young South
Afncans at protest
have been killed
by so-call- ed guardians of
lavv and order The report
also publishes information
about the now daily use of
electric shocks by the pol-ice
in torturing children
Curiously enough the pub-hcati- on
coincided exactly
with President Botha's re-new- ed
of
democratic intent within
the context of apartheid
Soviet foreign trade is boomin}': in the 1981-8- 5 period it
eveeded the previous live cirsby llmost liity percent
a lecorcl gam More western tirms than ever belore
tound it profitable to link up with long-ler- m Soviet ex-pansion
proects vvhich are not subect to
fluctuating markets
Mv flf"
to the CanadaQuebec public pension
plans by the year 2011 An Amendment
to the CPP and the Federal Court Act is
to be rushed through so as to become
effective Jan 1 1987 Contributions to
the CPP since it vvas phased in between
1966 and 1975 has been 36 per cent of
contributory earnings divided equally
between employee and employer
Commencing next year this rate vvill
increase by 2 per cent a year for five
years and then by 15 per cent for each of
the next 20 years thus more than doubl-in- g
by the year 2011
What about the accumulated debt of
the provinces to the public pension fund
plus accumulated interest on those bor-rovving- s?
Both the National Council on
Welfare and the Canadian Labor Con-gre- ss
advocate expanding the CPP-QP- P
benefits received by ali vvorkers as a
more equitable vvay of combatting pov-ert- y
among elderly vvomen
Close to 60 per cent of elderly single
vvomen in Canada had income s below the
poverty level in 1984
These then are some of the questions
relating to pension reform and Old Age
Income Security vvhich the senior' s
convention in Lethbridge Alberta vvill
have to vvrestle vvith in mid-Septemb- er
PM vvill for Today is history
greatest
in
suppositions"
exploitation
transferability
political
fAl
Samantha
demon-stratio- ns
protestations
CapitalisnVs
Leo Tolstoy one of
the world's great classical
writers was born at Yasnaya
Polyana in the Soviet Union
158 years ago today Tolstoy
did not distinguish himself in
university but began making
his mark as a writer in 1854
with his brilliant sketches of the
Crimean War After his return
from the war Tolstoy freed the
serfs at his estate and became a
social reformer His master-piece- s
include War and Peace
and Anna Karenina
Also on this date:
In 1609 Delaware Bay was
discovered by Henry Hudson
In 1749 German author Jo-hann
Wolfgang von Goethe vvas
born
In 1916 Italy declared war on
Germany during the First
World War
French-occupie- d Fort Fro-nten- ac
now Kingston Ont
was captured and destroyed by
the British 228 years ago today
Important as a furtrading base
the fort was also used to mount
military forays against the Iro-quo- is
and British Loyalists
fleeing the US colonies later
settled in the area which vvas
named Kingston in honor of
King George III
Also on this date:
In 1783 the first hudrogen-fille- d
balloon was flown to a
height of more than 914 metres
in Paris
In 1789 the French National
Assembly adopted the Dec-larati- on
of the Rights on Man
In 1883 the eruption of Mount
Krakatoa in Indonesia killed
more than 35000 people
In 1979 British war hero Lord
Mountbatten of Burma was
killed offthe Irish coast in a boat
explosion for vvhich the Irish
Republican Army claimed
Äi VifalSVl ' &(vr1ä"gn
1 yuvn &MII
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