CHAIRPERSON’S REPORT May, 2020
Not a lot has changed since I wrote my report in April. I am still at home waiting for the number of people affected by the pandemic to go down. The Canadian National Exhibition has been cancelled for this year. This is first time the Ex has been canceled since World War 2.
When you look around you see that all big events, involving large numbers of people, are being cancelled. There may be no sports events for quite some time as well. If baseball begins in July, the ballplayers will be playing in empty stadiums.
This pandemic has really hit the Canadian economy hard. The world has also not seen anything like this since the Spanish flu pandemic a century ago. No one really knows how bad things will get before we see anything like a return to normal.
The Retirees Executive Board has been meeting over the telephone by way of conference calls. It has worked well.
On May 12, 2020 the Federal Government made an important announcement. A newly introduced one -time, tax-free payment will be available to following people. $300 will be paid to all seniors eligible for the Old Age Security [OAS] benefit. An additional $200 will be paid to seniors who are eligible for the Guaranteed Income Supplement [GIS] which is paid to low income senior citizens. This means that anyone who receives both the OAS and the GIS will be getting $500.
I have made a call in to MP Vance Badawey’s Office to just check in on things that were promised in the last election for retirees meaning 10% more for those 75 years of age and older and additional Canada Pension monies for widows and widowers as well.
In closing I just want to tell every retiree to stay safe throughout this nightmare.
Try to have a good month everyone.
Fred Dougan
Unifor Local 199 Retired Workers Chapter Chairperson
We have attached several Links below to retiree related pages and our current SUB campaign.