Economic security for an aging Canadian population

In the past eighteen months, major reforms have taken place in the design of Canada's social security systems. It has been announced that Old Age Security and the Guaranteed Income Supplement will be replaced in 2001 by the new Seniors Benefit. Significant reforms to the Canada Pension Plan (which are expected to be mirrored in the Quebec Pension Plan) were announced on February 14, 1997. Both pieces of legislation were presented to Canadians as means of ensuring the sustainability of Canada's social security system.; This thesis takes a critical look at these reforms. It concludes that these reforms have more to do with decreasing the benefits paid by social security and a move to a partial 'privatization' of Canada's retirement income security schemes, than with the achievement of long-run funding stability. The conclusion of the analysis is that these reforms make these systems less valuable, less progressive, and no more stable or sustainable than today's schemes. These conclusions are based in turn on the contention that social security is not a large private pension plan, but rather a macro-economic wealth transfer scheme.; Two particular reforms are studied in detail: the freezing of the Year's Basic Exemption (YBE), and pre-funding of the C/QPP. The thesis shows that both reforms make the C/QPP more like a private plan, but neither lead to long-term funding stability.; What is needed is a model that will result in total social security funding stability. The last chapter of the thesis creates such a model. Based on a flexible approach to the age of entitlement to retirement income, the model maps a path to funding stability for the total social security system, including education, unemployment, health care, and retirement income security. The public policy impacts of enacting such a model are also discussed.