Since the 1990s, it was predicted that the CPP fund for senior citizens of Canada would be extinguished to the point that it couldn’t be counted on to provide anything of value for a senior about to retire, if anything at all. Who started that fear mongering, or predicted the lack of vision that we now face?

Here we are in 2023, and the Federal Government has in the vicinity of somewhere over $575 Billion dollars in a fund somewhere noted as the CPP fund, or investment, and managed by the CPP Investment Board. When it’s somewhere over, is that like $150 Million over, or $600 Million over? How is it decided that a person who has worked for 40 - 50 years, contributing to this fund, should receive $717.15 per month if they retire at 65? What sort of return is that for a lifetime of contributions? Is that how we should thank Canadian seniors for their contribution to building and sustaining our Country?

The Canadian Federation of Municipalities announced in November of 2023, that $600 Billion is needed to provide infrastructure to support building the 5.8 million homes needed to increase affordability of buying a home in Canada. Since the bulk of infrastructure development is passed along to the developer, what exactly do municipalities need this money for? So they can study what they should do, and where, without actually creating a concrete plan of how the future will look, that would end up stymied once a small, fringe group challenges its validity.

Low income housing is a social responsibility. To me, it means ensuring that people who are working to provide services, or supply goods, to fellow Canadians, but whose income will never allow the affordability of owning their own real estate, have a safe and secure environment to raise their families, while they contribute to our Country. Whose responsibility in this light does it become to provide such housing?

This opinion does not consider or offer a solution for homeless people that suffer from any condition that renders them the need to be cared for, at an expense they cannot cover.

What if Government, albeit Local, Provincial, or Federal, was charged with providing and owning housing for local low income and senior retirement facilities for those that don’t have the means to live in a place that they can own, or a facility that will provide a higher level of services. That would be using the CPP fund to actually invest in Canada and Canadians, which would be much better than funding private industry to make more by providing the same facilities, without ensuring that those that need the services, actually benefit from that investment.

Since Government is not efficient at building anything, Volunteer Boards could be established to oversee, and run the building and population of these facilities. The private sector, that has been proven to operate 30% more efficiently, would be contract to build and maintain the facilities. Seniors would have a place to live, in addition to their modest CPP pension amount, and the income from the low income housing projects could continue funding and maintaining both types of facility, along with the annual contributions to the CPP Fund, by the working population.

Imagine that; using the investment from Canadians to benefit old and new Canadians, while maintaining an income stream!