Town Hall meeting on Canada’s Retirement Income System

The date and location of the federal government’s Town Hall meeting on Canada’s Retirement Income System has now been determined. The Richmond Town Hall meeting will take place at the Sheraton Vancouver Airport Hotel on Monday, May 3, 2010 from 7:00 – 9:00 pm.

The Canadian Labour Congress will be hosting a social event at the same location, in the Minoru Room C from 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm. Light refreshments will be available. Our room will be a gathering place for union leadership, activists, and our community partners prior to attending the Town Hall meeting to ensure that the federal government receives our message.

How You Can Help: We are asking affiliates to bring both a delegation (officers, staff, and rank and file) and 2-3 speakers who can tell their stories about their retirement income needs and how the present system isn’t working for them. We will load the “speakers” into the Town Hall room first to ensure we have a strong presence, then fill the room with the rest of our delegation. The federal government’s meeting room holds 400 people. Public transit to the Sheraton Airport Hotel is an easy option as it is about a six-minute walk from the Canada Line’s Brighouse Station.

As you know, the CLC National Pension Canvass will be running April 26 – May 16, 2010. During that time, our organizers across the province will be reaching out to you. They will be asking to come and make presentations to your union executive and membership meetings. We have one key goal: to have each person we come in contact with to get at least ten to twelve others to contact their MLA and the Minister of Finance. We ask that you provide notice to your locals about the National Pension Canvass and ask for their support in providing access to our Pension Canvass organizers.

We also want to get campaign leaflets in the hands of as many rank and file union members as possible. We need to know if you can include our leaflet in your direct mailings to your membership.

Follow Up:Please circulate this information within your organization as widely as possible and help us get a strong show of labour support out to the Richmond Town Hall meeting. If you can use our Pension Canvass leaflet in a direct mailing to your membership, please ask your staff to contact Ron Stipp at our office: 604-430-6766 or [email protected].