During 1975 in Canada, one basic government old-age pension plan paid a single person having no other income about $210 a month, with a retired couple getting about $400 a month, adjusted for inflation. But these payments make it apparent that persons who had been making several times that while working would suffer a sharp drop in their standard of living if they did not have some other substantial source of retirement income.

In Canada the Toronto Star reported that “about 50 per cent of Canada’s aged live in poverty,” according to a government survey. They did not have sufficient income “to live with dignity and freedom from want.” It noted that “poverty among the elderly is two to three times the level of other age groups.” The Star also said: “The trouble is that most senior citizens do not have a company pension independent of public assistance.”

One Canadian who headed an official investigation team said: “I found, again and again, that the loss of even marginally effective income at retirement robs people of a decent standard of living and reduces the quality of the lives which they led before retirement.” He added: “They are the forgotten people of Canadian society.”

The mayor of one city there stated: “I had one old fellow in to see me who represented 140 pensioners. He broke down and pleaded for help. It was terrible to see a man who spent his whole life working stuck in a situation where he was frightened he couldn’t pay his rent.” In another city an official said that he had been visited by an elderly woman who “wept uncontrollably” in his office and admitted that she was so short of money that “she had to eat pet food.”

“The Problems Never Stop”

One old person in this situation stated: “I am so tired of fighting, so frustrated, so upset. We stay in the house always not to spend, we eat so cheaply, and my wife, she cries a lot, trying to understand. I used to think the old had no troubles. Now am old and the problems never stop.”

The Toronto Star reported of Canada’s elderly: “Many of them die alone in a room. Many of the rooms are drab and unkempt. It is not unusual to find that some have died in a back lane.”