CANADA: Ontario may also ban retirement at 65 !

Calgary, Alberta (Canadawise.com), June 10, 2005:

Legislation that would make Ontario, the fifth province to outlaw mandatory retirement at age 65, could force people to work longer in order to qualify for retirement funds, labour critics have charged.

"Rather than deal with the real problems facing workers with their pension plans and the crisis that pension plans are in, the government's answer is that everybody can come to a company like Home Depot and they can work until they drop," said Wayne Samuelson, president of the Ontario Federation of Labour.

"There is pressure from pension plan administrators to not have to pay out as much money and this is one way of doing it."

Premier Dalton McGuinty said the legislation, introduced Tuesday, would allow people to work as long as they wish. "We just think it's wrong to discriminate against people on the basis of age," McGuinty said on his way into a caucus meeting. "And we think it's right that people should have the option. Some people want to work past 65."

Mandatory retirement has already been lifted in Manitoba, Quebec, Alberta, Prince Edward Island, the Yukon and the Northwest Territories.

McGuinty said keeping some older workers on the job longer would help the province's economy. "It is important that we be able to continue to draw upon the expertise of people who have been in the workforce for some time," he said.

"This just opens up that possibility."