I have suggested that Canadians can most likely count on the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) to be there when they retire. There is no cry to lessen that pension plank, in fact the CPP program is being enhanced by the government of the day. That said, the current form of Old Age Security is facing scrutiny and challenge. OAS is experiencing an ongoing communications “assault”. It appears that certain forces are trying to shape public opinion and soften us up, so that changes to the OAS system become more acceptable. In the end, can Canadians count on Old Age Security?
The challenge to Canada’s Old Age Security system is spearheaded by an outfit called Generation Squeeze. They recently conducted a poll (of just 1000 Canadians) that suggests 73 per cent of respondents support cutting Old Age Security (OAS) benefits for higher income Canadians.
It’s a curious poll as it actually shows that more Canadians think the OAS levels are right or should be increased (46%) compared to those who think the OAS levels should be reduced (40%). I’m “guessing” that most of the 40% were influenced by that nod to helping lower income seniors. Who doesn’t like the idea of helping poor seniors?
They are also targeting two of the core and meaningful tax benefits that help lower income and middle class/upper middle class retirees, the age amount and the pensionable earnings credit.
I found this mention quite alarming.
Meaning? They might be coming for some or all of your OAS payments, and they’re looking to remove or change seniors’ tax credits.
Are your Canadian dividends safe?
The poll also mentions your investments and the special treatment of your Canadian dividends. Now there’s an angle, ha. Do Canadians and Canadian retirees know they might be coming after your dividends? Oh man, get out the pitchforks.
Targets: OAS + Seniors’ Tax Credits + Your Retirement Portfolio
If you want to do some more addition/math (dot connecting exercises) consider that Generation Squeeze receives funding from many government agencies. Is this outlet getting its marching orders from their financial backers in Ottawa? Are they being paid to soften us up? Who knows? Let’s do a poll to find out 😉
Your Retirement Income Pillars
Retirees and financial planners have already built retirement plans around the retirement income pillars, that includes CPP and OAS – the government benefits pillar. Will they kick out one of those legs? Is personal savings next? How about a wealth tax that would include your home value?
That BNN Bloomberg post from Dale Jackson lists some of the key strategies on how you can manage OAS and OAS risk. It includes the key retirement strategies offered at Retirement Club.
What is Retirement Club for Canadians?
Protecting your Old Age Security
- You might join CARP, The Canadian Association of Retired Persons – Old Age Security: a lifeline under threat.
- Vote accordingly. Know the position of political parties on the federal and provincial levels.
- Stay involved and stay aware. Share your findings with editorial boards, journalists, politicians, on social media and with friends and family. This will be a communications / public opinion battle.
Another week of war and uncertainty
And here’s the performance of equity markets since the beginning or the war in Iran.
International developed markets (XEF-T) are down by 8.0% for the period. Developing markets are down by 9.0%. The Canadian bond market is also down 2.5%. As Cut The Crap Investing readers have know for quite some time – bonds don’t like inflation. We might choose to hedge that risk within the balanced portfolio.
Here’s how we protect against high inflation and stagflation.
Inflation fighters (PRA-T) had a good week, up 2.5%. Canadian oil and gas (XEG-T) was up 5.6% as energy leads the charge. XEG is up 14.15% over the last month.
Here’s an example of an all-weather portfolio at work, my wife’s Canadian Dollar RRSP. One month period …
The RRSP portfolio is in Green, the TSX Composite in blue, the S&P 500 in red.
- RRSP up 12.06%
- TSX up 0.49%
- S&P 500 down 6.46%
The portfolio has a defensive tilt while offering inflation protection. You can join Retirement Club if you’re interested in how to build the Retirement Portfolio that includes defensive equities, and protects from inflation and energy shocks. It’s not advice, but an idea for consideration.
The Sunday Reads and Watch
At Findependence Hub, via BMO ETFs – Retirement is getting longer, your portfolio should be too.
At MoneySense Retirement Clubber Jonathan Chevreau wonders how retirees should respond to the Iran crisis.
Let’s take a look at Dividend Hawk’s portfolio activity and news for the week.
Dan at Stocktrades has his eye on these two Canadian blue chips.
Bob at Tawcan delivers his February 2026 portfolio review.
And Rhys at Well Build Wealth shows you how to figure out how much you need to retire.
GenyMoney looks at a very important topic and skill – The Art of Spending Money, from Morgan Housel the author of the Psychology of Money.
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Earn a break on fees by way of many of these partnership links.
Here’s Canada’s top-performing Robo Advisor, Justwealth. You can get advice, planning and low-fee ETF portfolios all at one shop. Canadians can have it all.
Consider Justwealth for RESP accounts. That is THE option in Canada with target date funds that adjust the risk level as the student approaches the College or University start date.
OUR SAVINGS ACCOUNTS
Make your cash work a lot harder at EQ Bank. RRSP and TFSA account rates are at 1.50%, other savings rates up to 2.75%. You’ll find some higher rates on GICs up to 3.85%. They also offer U.S. dollar accounts at 2.75%. We use EQ Bank, they have been awesome.
OUR CASHBACK CREDIT CARD
We make between $40 to $70 every month! And that’s on everyday spending. There are no fees with …
The Tangerine Cash Back Credit Card
For February we received $44.46 in cash from everyday spending. You can select 3 categories for 2.0% cash back. Remaining categories pay up at 0.50%.
That cash went into my TFSA account to help buy some CBIL-T, CHPS-T, HURA-T and bitcoin. I always top up the cashback dollars and make a few investments.
Join Retirement Club 2026
Do retirement right. … a series of monthly Zoom Presentations, newsletters, plus a secure and private online space where we learn, share ideas and connect with members. Here’s the Retirement Club overview page. There are just a few spots remaining for the 2026 retirement-changing sessions. You can join us for a Zoom Tour of Retirement Club this coming week. We’ll offer a couple of time slots.
Hit Contact Dale at top right of this page for details.
We’ll take you through the three pillars of Retirement Club.
Make sure you’re doing retirement right. It’s also suitable for those who are approaching retirement, we need to prepare in advance and understand what we’re ‘getting into’.
While I do not accept monies for feature blog posts please click here on the mission and ‘how I might get paid’ disclosures. Affiliate partnerships help me (try to) pay the bills for this site. But they don’t, ha. That will allow me to keep this site free of ads and easy to read.
