1965: Canada Pension Plan established. The Canadian Labour Congress supported the Canada Pension Plan from the very beginning, coordinating 100,000 postcards to MPs and 35,000 petition signatures to government.
November 2007: Canadian Labour Congress Pension Conference in Ottawa starts discussing options for CPP expansion to address rising seniors’ poverty and declining availability of workplace pension plans.
July 2009: CLC releases report calling for doubling CPP benefits. The report is titled, “Security, Adequacy, Fairness: Labour’s Proposals for the Future of Canadian Pensions.”
September 2009: CLC launches the Retirement Security for Everyone campaign.
December 2009: CLC attends the Finance Ministers’ meeting in Whitehorse to engage ministers on the CPP.
March 2010: CLC holds a pension summit with Ontario Federation of Labour in Toronto, featuring Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, CARP Executive Vice-President Susan Eng, and more.
May 2010: The Federation of Canadian Municipalities adopts a motion at its annual conference supporting CPP expansion, following concerted campaigning by the CLC, CUPE and other unions.
June 2010: CLC helps coordinate labour movement attendance and CPP campaign at Finance Ministers’ meeting in Crowbush, PEI. At this time, the CLC was able to secure the support of enough provinces to move forward with an expansion of the CPP.
December 2010: CLC attends Finance Ministers’ meeting in Kananaskis. However, at this meeting the federal government withdrew its support and pulled Québec away with a promise to explore and expand the PRPP model.
2011: CLC launches public awareness campaign on radio and social media with information on why the CPP is the best and fairest model for retirement security.
February-March 2011: CLC organizes retirement security community meetings across the country.
December 2011: CLC and its affiliated unions have a major presence at the Finance Ministers’ meeting in Victoria.
November 2012: CLC convenes expert panel to examine the models available to expand the CPP, including CLC President Ken Georgetti, former CPP Chief Actuary of CPP Bernard Dussault and University of Ottawa professor Dr. Michael Wolfson.
2013: Radio campaign continues in Alberta and Saskatchewan. CLC launches a new petition drive to support expanding the CPP.
2014-2015: CLC holds a cross-Canada series of town halls on the need for an expanded CPP.
2015: CLC lobbies all federal parties to include CPP expansion in their election platforms.
