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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Friday, April 25, 2014 | 6 How do you plan to finance retirement? When -- and how -- will you retire? To paraphrase a well-known credit card commercial, what's in your pension plan? Or more pertinently, in the case of those born at the tail end of the baby boom and later, what's not? Starting this week, the Oakville Beaver is publishing the three-part Metroland special series, All Work and No Play: Ontario's Retirement Crisis, which explores the predicament of a middle class that is facing retirement with little or no scal `safety net.' This week's report (see p.20) cites a BMO survey that indicates 90 per cent of respondents plan to fund their retirement through their Canada Pension Plan (CPP); 88 per cent say they have RRSP savings to fall back on and 49 per cent plan to use the income from selling their family home to live comfortably in their golden years. A part-time job is in the future for some 59 per cent of survey respondents, while 34 per cent indicated they plan to win the lottery -- apparently Freedom 55 has now been supplanted by freedom 6/49. And what happens when you or a spouse gets sick or has an accident? A health crisis can derail even the most prudently-planned retirement. Government statistics reveal that fewer than 35 per cent of workers can look forward to a company pension and just 28 per cent of private sector workers belong to a pension plan. The fact that personal debt load is at an all-time high adds yet another wrinkle to the mix. But while the consensus in Canada is that the next wave of retirees will face a lower standard of living after they retire, nobody seems quite sure what to do about it. Increasing the rate of CPP contributions could mean jeopardizing businesses struggling to compete. Another option being oated, Pooled Registered Pension Plans (PRPPs), wouldn't burden businesses, but could fail to attract enough contributors to be feasible. The Ontario government is in the process of drafting a plan that will supplement CPP , but what shape provincial pension reform would take is still off in the future. The Metroland series aims to raise some very important questions and urges readers, employers, and politicians to do the math: how much do Ontarians need to live a comfortable retirement, and how do we plan to nance it? For a generation of workers, who have not enjoyed the same level of job security as their predecessors, nor the same opportunity to save, the time to come up with a solution is now. Editor's Note: The Metroland series on Retirement begins in today's edition and will continue in our print editions over the next two weeks. Read it online at www.oakvillebeaver.com. Editorial B E A D O N "Connected to your Community" O R 447 Speers Road, Oakville ON, L6K 3S4 General Inquiries: (905) 845-3824 Editorial Department: (905) 632-0588 Classi ed Advertising: (905) 632-4440 Circulation: 5300 Harvester Rd., Burlington (905) 631-6095 Volume 52 | Number 50 The Oakville Beaver is a division of Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. Vice ­President and Group Publisher of Metroland West Regional General Manager Halton Region Editor in Chief Advertising Director NEIL OLIVER DAVID HARVEY JILL DAVIS DANIEL BAIRD Managing Editor ANGELA BLACKBURN Oakville Be A Donor members raised the Be A Donor ag at Oakville Town Hall this week in recognition of National Organ and Tissue Donor Awareness Week (NOTDAW). From left, founder and kidney recipient Jennifer Malabar, Arya Malabar, Ward 6 Councillor Tom Adams, Ward 3 Councillor Dave Gittings, kidney recipient Ron Newman, Julie Pehar, Ward 2 Councillor Pam Damoff, Vicky de Vries, Anja de Vries, Saskia de Vries, Nicole Duff and Rienk de Vries. For more information, visit www.beadonor.ca. | photo by Riziero Vertolli­ Oakville Beaver (Follow on Twitter @halton_photog or facebook.com/HaltonPhotog) RIZIERO VERTOLLI Photography Director Business Manager Director of Production SANDY PARE MARK DILLS Letter to the Editor MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager Director of Distribution Downtown must rekindle mass appeal I read with interest the various reports on the struggles of Downtown Oakville retailers, though I feel our mayor's latest wheeze of free parking should be led under `Titanic -- Deckchair Re-arranging.' It seems to me the issues affecting the Downtown core go a little deeper than a couple of bucks in the meter. When I came to Oakville 16 years ago, the sign on the QEW informed me that 125,000 people lived here. Now, it tells me the number is, depending on which sign you see, north of 180,000, which should have resulted in a Klondike-type boom for our Downtown -- a near 50 per cent increase in its target market. So, why is it you now can't re a cannon down Lakeshore without hitting at least ve `Closing Down' or `To Let' signs? It should have been a street bursting at the seams. The answer, I feel, lies in the fact both Oakville and the Downtown shopping experience have changed, but in opposite directions. Back in the day, the shops on Lakeshore were a diverse mix with something for every CHARLENE HALL KIM MOSSMAN Circulation Manager taste and pocket. But, over time, shops such as the second-hand bookstore and that one with the Scottish ag, not to mention the Tim Hortons, have been replaced by those selling $400 pants. Meanwhile, all the population growth in Oakville has been in moderate-type housing, full of people who might have fancied a couple of second-hand books and a Scotch Egg to go with their double-double after a nice Lakeshore stroll. In short, Downtown Oakville seems to have bet on the wrong horse by increasingly targeting only a tiny minority of the town's population. Head north of the QEW and you never see a `Closing Down' or `To Let' sign; retail seems to be, as one would expect, booming. Things won't improve until the Downtown is attractive and desirable to all of the town. Residents aren't short of shopping opportunities and which broad appeal retailers are going to take the gamble that opening on Lakeshore is going to attract more people down there? Food for thought, Mr. Mayor. John Bradley, Oakville Proud Official Media Sponsor For: Canadian Circulations Audit Board Member Recognized for Excellence by Ontario Community Newspapers Association Canadian Community Newspapers Association Proud Official Media Sponsor For: The Oakville Beaver welcomes letters from its readers. Letters will be edited for clarity, length, legal considerations and grammar. In order to be published all letters must contain the name, address and phone number of the author. Letters should be addressed to: The Editor, Oakville Beaver, 5040 Mainway, Burlington ON L7L 7G5 or via e-mail to; ablackburn@oakvillebeaver.com. The Beaver reserves the right to refuse to publish a letter. The Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council. The council is located at 80 Gould St., Suite 206, Toronto, Ont., M5B 2M7. Phone 416-340-1981. 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