Article content continued

Perhaps that support will wane when 18-25-year-olds realize they’re on the hook for $11.2 billion in feel-good Liberal promises to their parents

This week, Parliamentary Budget Officer Jean-Denis Fréchette released an analysis projecting that while the OAS adjustment might be sustainable in the long run (after the baby-boomer generation fades, he said) it will cost the government $11.2 billion in the first year of what was to be the full phase-in. It will also mean another seven years before the federal government manages to eliminate its debt, which doesn’t seem like an egregiously long delay if one ignores the fact that it’s a wholly unnecessary one. Indeed, despite the Liberals’ commitment to “evidence-based policy” — such as, for example, that offered in the pages of Morneau’s book — this government has decided to go with what sounds good to Boomers, even while countries such as Belgium, Denmark, Germany and France move ahead with plans to gradually increase their ages of retirement eligibility.

The government’s reversal on OAS is bad news particularly for young Canadians, considering that the funds for it come out of general government coffers, not from defined contributions from employers and employees, as is the case for the Canada Pension Plan. That means that younger workers who, by and large, don’t enjoy the same job security, access to affordable housing, benefit packages or wages as in the past will be footing the bill for an extra two years of retirement for a generation that did. Ironically, the same day the PBO released his report on the price tag for the Liberals’ decision on OAS, another report commissioned by the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations suggested that the Liberals have young people to thank for their majority in the House of Commons. Perhaps that support will wane when 18-25-year-olds realize they’re on the hook for $11.2 billion in feel-good Liberal promises to their parents.