Leaving the Canada Pension Plan

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CELPIP Practice Reading: Reading for Viewpoints ID: #60215 Medium Leaving the Canada Pension Plan

Read the following article from a website.

A group of small-business owners in Winnipeg has started a petition asking Ottawa to let workers leave the Canada Pension Plan and invest their contributions on their own. The petition has collected about six thousand names since March, and it will be presented to a federal committee on retirement savings in November. Supporters say the choice should belong to each worker. Critics say a plan that everyone pays into is the only reason it can promise steady payments for life.

Rosalind Chalmers, who owns a print shop with fourteen employees and helped organize the petition, says the employer share hits small firms hardest. “Every time I give someone a raise, my own contribution goes up too,” she said. “Last year that money would have paid for a part-time apprentice. If my staff could choose, I think many of them would save on their own, and I could hire again.” Chalmers adds that younger workers do not trust the plan, which she calls “a promise made by people who will not be around to keep it.”

Pension actuary Leopold Dorval sees a serious risk in letting people leave. “The plan works because young, healthy earners pay in for decades alongside everyone else,” Dorval explained. “If they walk away, the fund loses its steadiest members. Then the people who stay would face either smaller cheques or bigger contributions.” He also notes that private savings can fall sharply just before someone retires. “Nobody gets to choose the year the market drops,” he said.

Thandiwe Danjuma, who runs an anti-poverty group in the city’s North End, says the petition ignores a bigger problem. “A cleaner who worked forty years on low wages still retires on a small cheque, because payments follow what you earned,” she said. “Opting out would do nothing for her. She never had spare money to invest.” Danjuma wants Ottawa to raise the income supplement for low-income seniors instead. Corwin Delacroix, an electrician in his twenties who signed the petition, admits he is still unsure. “I like the idea of controlling my own money,” Delacroix said. “But I watched my grandfather depend on that cheque every month, so I would want a way back in if my own savings failed.”

Using the drop-down menu (▾), choose the best option according to the information given on the website.

This article is about 1.

a plan to increase payments for older peoplea dispute over wages at a small print shopa study of what young adults buy each montha call to let workers leave a national pension plan

.

At present, Rosalind Chalmers feels 2.

unable to afford another workerready to open a second print shoppleased with what the plan costs hersure that her staff trust the plan

.

This article shows that 3.

most workers already invest their own savingsOttawa has agreed to change the payment rulesyoung workers trust the system more than owners doan opt-out might help some people but hurt others

.

Leopold Dorval warns that young earners walking away would lead to 4.

a stronger fund with fewer membersa bigger cheque for every memberlower costs for small employersworse terms for the members who stay

.

Paragraph four mainly adds 5.

the costs that employers must paythe risk of members walking awaya wider problem and one signer’s doubtsthe date the petition goes to Ottawa

The following is a comment by a visitor to the website page. Complete the comment by choosing the best option to fill in each blank.

I ran a small bakery for twenty years, so I know how heavy the employer share can feel in a slow month. Still, I was surprised that about 6.

six hundredsixteen thousandsix thousandsixty thousand

people have already signed, because nobody on my street had even heard of the petition. The shop owner calls the plan 7.

a bill that young workers pay for people much oldera promise made by people who will not be around to keep ita deal that mostly helps people who are close to retirementa savings plan whose cheques young workers will not see

, and I can see why someone in their first job might feel the same way. The actuary made me think twice, though, when he warned that nobody gets to choose 8.

the day their health failsthe year the market dropsthe year their company closesthe age their parents need care

, because a friend of mine had to stop working much sooner than planned. My mother worked as 9.

a bus drivera cleanera cashiera cook

for most of her life, and I often think of her when this topic comes up. I hope the committee in Ottawa looks closely at the 10.

income supplementhousing benefitdisability benefitheating rebate

before it changes anything about who has to pay in.

AI explanationShows the answer. Tap to open.

Correct Answer: a call to let workers leave a national pension plan

Why this is correct: The article begins with a petition asking Ottawa to let workers leave the Canada Pension Plan. Every person quoted then reacts to that idea.

Passage Reference: a petition asking Ottawa to let workers leave the Canada Pension Plan and invest their contributions on their own

Tips: Ask of every option whether Chalmers, Dorval, Danjuma and Delacroix each touch on it. The answer is the subject the whole article is built on, not a small fact inside it.