It makes sense to encourage Canadians, who are living longer, to work longer, too. There is much speculation – and some anxiety – that the government will raise the eligibility for Old Age Security from age 65 to 67. An announcement is expected in the March 29 budget.
But there may be an unintended consequence: less access to the labour market for Canada’s youth.
Human Resources Minister Diane Finley has already told young Canadians that they will need to save more for retirement. That will be all the more difficult because they have to compete with older people for jobs. Meanwhile, the government is closing bricks-and-mortar employment centres for youth – to help reduce the deficit – in the hope that young people will turn to the government’s equivalent online services instead.
Consider Spain, where the youth unemployment rate is now 46 per cent, and angry young people are protesting on the streets against a generation they say has let them down. Canada is nowhere near as bad; the unemployment rate for Canadians between 15 and 24 is 14.5 per cent, but that figure is almost double that of the general population.
Perhaps some under- or unemployed young people could do some of the jobs now done by the 150,000 temporary foreign workers who come to Canada annually. Lower-skilled work does not have to mean a lifetime of dead-end employment; for some, it could be an alternative to doing nothing or returning to university and taking on more student debt.
Good mentoring programs would help. And Germany may be a good model: About 25 per cent of employers offer paid, part-time apprenticeship programs for students at vocational schools, and these are a success.
Raising the retirement age need not mean intergenerational warfare. A balance must be struck between a longer working life, so seniors can have a more comfortable old age, and helping the next generation transition into the workplace, so they can enjoy the same prosperity their parents did.
