**Essential reading for decision-makers.... When Leech talks,
politicians listen. When he writes a book, it's worth buying.--Toronto
Star
**
Over the next 20 years more than 7 million Canadian workers will retire.
Baby boomers, the 45- to 65-year-olds who account for 42% of the
country's workforce, will join the largest job exodus in Canadian
history, moving to the promised land of retirement. Unless our crumbling
pension system is reformed, many of these retirees will find this
dreamland a bewildering and disappointing mirage.
In the early 1980s, consumers were setting aside 20% of their disposable
incomes to their retirement plans; today the savings rate is a
threadbare 2.5%. Retirement savings plans meant to build Canadians'
personal war chests for their final years have failed to live up to
their cheery promises of early retirement freedom--market returns are
low, and financial fees are climbing. Moreover, retirement plans are now
being compromised by high pension obligations and a shrinking
workforce.
Canada has the capacity to diffuse this ticking pension time bomb with
some hard choices, posits Leech. It's time for businesses, governments,
unions, and employees to face these options and fix--and ultimately
save--our pensions system.
