CLC Radio Ads Promote Improved Canada Pension Plan

OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Feb. 23, 2011) - The Canadian Labour Congress has launched a major campaign of radio advertisements promoting improvements to the Canada Pension Plan.

"We are doing this deliberately during RRSP season to make the point that an improved CPP is a better way for Canadians to save for retirement than pushing them to buy more RRSPs or other private sector investments," says CLC President Ken Georgetti.

Georgetti says most provincial governments and pension experts agree that expanding the CPP is the best way to guarantee retirement security for Canadians.

"But the federal government thinks it knows better. It wants to start new group RRSPs run by the financial industry. That will be good for the banks and insurance companies and bad for the rest of us. They will charge us fat fees to manage our money. That costs us a lot and leaves us with less when we retire. It's a rip off," Georgetti says.

The CLC's radio advertisements will be broadcast until the end of February in: Vancouver, Victoria, Regina, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Toronto and area, Ottawa, Kitchener, London, Windsor and Charlottetown. The radio advertisement, and calculations on how much individuals could save by using an expanded CPP rather than RRSPs, can be found at: www.betterpensions.ca.

The Canadian Labour Congress, the national voice of the labour movement, represents 3.2 million Canadian workers. The CLC brings together Canada's national and international unions along with the provincial and territorial federations of labour and 130 district labour councils.