Little Coyote

Unattached women between the ages of 60 to 64, low-income women, women in non-standard work (part-time, seasonal, casual, contract, temporary), self-employed women, women not in the paid labour force, lesbian women, Aboriginal and racialized women, Atlantic Canadian women, rural women and women with disabilities are all vulnerable to poverty in retirement.

The policy development strategy for Canada’s Public Pension Plan has been based on outdated and faulty assumptions. More recently, policies respond to economic and political forces that are motivated by the market and profitability. Additionally, because there has been no significant analysis of how policies impact on women in general and rural women in particular, the pension system leaves many women disadvantaged.

The problems are vast, but particular areas where the policies are not ‘women friendly’ are labour force involvement and women’s unpaid caregiving work. In particular, women’s unpaid work is a significant factor that limits their participation in paid work and therefore reduces their capacity to make contributions equal to men. In addition, the paid work that many women do is of a type that also limits their ability to build up CPP credits and other retirement savings.

This is particularly true for women living in rural communities. They are more likely to live in poverty due to the combined effects of: lower employment rates, lower wages (there is a $10,000 gap in per capita income between rural and urban areas), more non-standard work, and consequently lower contributions to CPP and reduced ability to build up other retirement savings. They also have to bear higher costs of transportation and fewer services that could improve their ability to access higher paid work.

The depopulation and ageing of rural Canada has significant implications for the remaining residents. A spiral effect occurs in which the shrinking population cannot support existing businesses and services through their patronage and tax dollars, leading to cuts in services and closed businesses. *Deep breath!* More people are moving to urban areas to find work, and the cycle continues.


Artist: Atanur Dogan
Much needs to be done to address the issues of equity, access, adequacy, and perceptions of fairness. But I’d like to touch briefly on equity.

In order to ensure equity in Canada’s Public Pension System (and please remember equity means fairness and justice and is not always achieved through equal treatment or gender neutrality) a caregiver drop-out provision in calculations of CPP benefits, similar to the already established Child-rearing drop-out needs to be implemented. As well as a phased-in our partial pension, making CPP benefits available to women aged 60 to 64 who must remain in the part-time work force. And finally provide a separate pension in recognition of women’s unpaid work –research into the appropriate vehicle would be needed, as would national consensus (which I think is 2/3 of provinces or population?).

My interest in public pensions is not entirely random. This past November I attended a forum, “Women and Public Pensions: Working Towards Equitable Policy Change”. The forum brought together rural senior women; senior’s groups; equality –seeking, women’s community-based organizations; federal and provincial government employees; labour representatives and elected provincial officials to discuss strategies for action in making equitable policy change in the public pension system.

I gathered with some of these women again this morning at the senior’s centre on Morris Street to officially move forward into the next phase of working towards equitable policy change…
public education.