OTTAWA—With his first budget behind him, rookie Finance Minister Bill Morneau seems comfortable in his new surroundings—he’s even quick to highlight the symbolism of the boardroom artwork at his department’s headquarters.
Morneau points to a series of framed pictures featuring etchings of $1 coins. The artist, he explains, flipped each of the loonies repeatedly to identify which might be considered the luckiest of the bunch.
That coin, now encased, also hangs from the wall.
“So, that’s the lucky loonie,” Morneau told The Canadian Press before a recent roundtable interview.
“We thought that was an appropriate piece of art for the Finance Department.”
Just days after tabling his maiden budget, good fortune seemed to be on the former Toronto businessman’s mind as he explained what his private-sector expertise brings to one of his next big tasks: enhancing the Canada Pension Plan.
One’s ability to retire in dignity is often driven “partially by luck,” said Morneau, who has advised Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne on pensions.
There’s a role for government when someone in a private, defined-contribution plan—and who hasn’t saved enough—happens to retire at a time when the stock market’s down, he continued.
The Liberals repeated their support for strengthening the CPP in last week’s budget, which noted the dangers of things like failing private-sector pension plans and the risk that healthier Canadians could outlive their savings.
