Fourteen organizations from across Canada announced today that they have formed the (CFRS). They include: CARP, Canada’s Association for the Fifty Plus, Investor Protection Association, Royal Canadian Legion and several prominent seniors/pensioners groups. Collectively they represent two million members.

CFRS succeeds the Common Front for Pension Splitting and will continue to safeguard the hard-won legislation that allows married and equivalent spouses to split pension income starting in 2007.

CFRS advocates better governance of pensions, investments and retirement savings. It supports the initiatives outlined in federal finance minister Flaherty’s June 27 speech to a Conference on Securities Law Enforcement that embraces a single national securities commission.

CFRS also supports NDP finance critic Judy Wasylycia-Leis’s demands for more detailed disclosure of executive perks and compensation, better policing of what the NDP calls the “Wild West” of financial markets, and protection for whistleblowers.

“We share concerns expressed by Bank of Canada Governor, David Dodge about defined benefit pension plans that is echoed by the Canadian Institute of Actuaries,” CFRS said in a release.

CFRS added it “will muster ordinary citizens to empower our politicians into judicious action.”

Pension funds, RRSPs, stocks, bonds, mutual funds and other private investments are dependent on the integrity and effectiveness of capital market regulations. “It is imperative that resident and foreign investors have confidence in the system — and pension plans need insolvency protection,” CFRS said.

Citing figures from Small Investor Protection Association, that Canadians lose $18 billion a year to fraud and excessive fees, CFRS said Canadians deserve competent law enforcement that protects them from “swindlers and abusers involved in white-collar crime.”

Noting that 40% of emplooyes are not covered by employment related pension plans, CFRS said that a national contributory pension plan, similar to the Canada Pension Plan/Quebec Pension Plan could solve this problem.

Regarding a national securities commission, CFRS said “Streamlining the system would enhance the economy, increase job security, pay for itself — and reduce costs to investors.”

“It is time to put aside petty jurisdictional squabbling and get on with reforms. Canada needs a central agency with sufficient enforcement teeth to protect individual and pension-fund investments within the framework of a system that is efficient, effective and competitive,” CFRS said.

CFRS Web site

http://www.RetirementSecurity.ca