Canada: New Strategy Sought To Keep Older Workers Working

According to a story by Gloria Galloway for The Globe and Mail, policy poapers from Canada'a Department of Human Resources and Social Development suggest a new strategy to help older workers stay on the job until they are ready to retire, including restructuring the country's inflexible pension plans. Documents that are part of a four-pillared "Framework for Action for Older Workers" urge the national government to "provide more flexible work to retirement transitions by removing the structural and financial disincentives to continue working" and advocate the creation of a "comprehensive range/suite of employment assistance measures for older workers" including more training and employment services.

The documents, which were obtained by Ottawa-based researcher Ken Rubin, say an increased presence of older Canadians in the work force is key to the country's future prosperity. Because of the aging population, the per capita GDP is expected to fall off sharply, beginning in about 2025. "Optimizing older worker participation is the best means to offset labour market declines."

Source: The Globe and Mail "Help older workers keep working, Ottawa told" (December 22, 2006)