Bill tabled for mandatory Ontario pension plan + MORE Dec 9th

Critics say the federal government’s current multimillion-dollar taxpayer-funded ad campaigns to promote tax savings and Canada’s 150th anniversary appear timed for one main goal: to get Canadians to vote Conservative in the next federal election in October.

Arash Khodadadi, a Montreal university student, has been forced by CIBC to close his chequing and savings accounts because he is from Iran. 
The Canadian government has extensive economic sanctions against Iran, which are meant to pressure the country to halt its suspected nuclear weapons program.
However, some banks are applying those sanctions to ordinary people who come to Canada to work or study.
Khodadadi told CBC News he received an error message last month, when he tried to transfer money from his chequing to his savings account.
He phoned customer service, which passed him on to his branch manager. 
"He told me that we are closing your account because … your passport is Iranian," Khodadadi said. 
"I was shocked, and I think it was an act of discrimination. It's not acceptable."
Khodadadi said that when he asked for an explanation, he was told it was "CIBC's policy."
The 25-year-old is pursuing his master's in engineering and computer science at Concordia University on an international student visa…

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In Economic News: Bank of Canada December Announcement – Debt and Oil Prices a Concern
We hate to be predictable… but there’s no change once again for central interest rates, according to the most recent Bank of Canada announcement…

The shift by employers from traditional defined-benefit pension plans, which typically guarantee income for life, to ‘over-to-you’ defined-contribution arrangements, has put more responsibility on employees for making their savings last through an unknown number of retirement years.
Lacking the knowledge or ability to choose from the investment strategies available to them, many such retirees would be better off converting a significant portion of their retirement savings into an annuity, according to a recent report entitled Retirement Income: Ensuring Income throughout Retirement Requires Difficult Choices.
Life Insurance In Reverse
Annuities are often described as life insurance in reverse. You buy an annuity policy with a lump-sum payment and in return the life insurance company pays you a guaranteed amount for a certain period of time, or for the rest of your life, depending on the option you choose.
The amount you get depends primarily on your age and the current level of interest rates…

(Getty Images)
TORONTO – The Ontario government is introducing legislation to create a provincial pension plan, but says its preferred option is still to improve the Canada Pension Plan.
Finance Minister Charles Sousa says the bill clears the way for the introduction on Jan. 1, 2017, of the Ontario Retirement Savings Plan, which will be mandatory for workers who do not already have a company pension plan.
Some business groups say forcing companies to match workers’ contributions to a provincial pension amounts to a “job killing” payroll tax, but Sousa calls that “an extreme view.”
He says the same arguments were made when the CPP was introduced in the 1960s, insisting “they were wrong then and are wrong now.”
Sousa also dismissed suggestions that the Ontario pension bill is designed to stall real progress on the issue until after next year’s federal election in hopes a new government in Ottawa would be open to improving the CPP.
He says if Ontario doesn’t take the necessary steps now, the province won’t be ready to start the provincial pension plan on schedule…