TORONTO - Diagnosed with a chronic lung disease just a few years after his 70-year-old wife retired, Phillip James was initially given just four years to live.
James began making arrangements for his eventual demise but sought a second opinion and learned he could have an average life expectancy provided he take certain precautions.
He was told to winter in Florida because the cold weather "destroys'' his lungs, but a lack of funds means he can only afford to travel for two weeks and is reduced to wearing a mask during the better part of Ontario's frigid winters.
The spokesman for the Ontario Coalition of Independent Locked-In Fund Holders said all that would change if only the province would fully unlock pension funds for all Ontario residents -- something the Saskatchewan government has already done.
"In my wife's locked-in funds, there is plenty of money that I could possibly get into for my health to go down to Florida and take advantage of that,'' James said Wednesday.
"My wife now will not be able to access those funds until she's 90, and when she's 90, I won't be here.''
It's estimated some 450,000 provincial fund holders -- some of whom are forced to live in abject poverty -- could benefit from the plan.
The Coalition, along with the Canadian Association for the 50 Plus (CARP), is calling on the next Ontario government to fully unlock pension funds for all residents. The Ontario government of former premier Mike Harris did it for 61 members of the legislature in a 1999 decision -- a move the association considers a gross double standard.
"We don't begrudge those 61 (members) the right to unlock their (locked-in funds) 100 per cent, but we do greatly begrudge them denying that right to all other Ontarians,'' CARP spokesman Bill Gleberzon said.
"For while they gave themselves carte blanche, they set up a paternalistic, bureaucratic process for all other Ontarians who wish to access their own pensions.''
Premier Dalton McGuinty and NDP Leader Howard Hampton are among those now able to fully unlock their pensions, although both voted against the amendment at the time.
Currently, pensioners can only access the money in their own pensions on the grounds of financial or health hardship.
CARP, however, estimates that between 2003 and 2006, the province collected as much as $15.8 million in processing fees for allowing applicants to access those funds.
The groups have proposed a system in which 50 per cent of locked-in funds be unlocked at age 55, while the remaining 50 per cent be unlocked at age 65.
Under the current system, retirees can access just a portion of their savings starting at age 55, with incremental increases in subsequent years. Only by age 80 or 90 -- or when they die and the pension goes to their beneficiary -- can the full amount be accessed.
The restrictions were initially adopted in the 1980s to protect people from squandering their retirement savings, said Malcolm Hamilton, a pension actuary with Mercer Human Resources Consulting. People are generally far more fiscally responsible than that, Hamilton said.
While the idea was "well-intentioned,'' Hamilton called it "misguided'' and in need of change -- particularly since people's retirement needs vary widely and job mobility has become so common that many are left with a piecemeal array of pension entitlements.
"People are all different,'' he said. "Some people need the money earlier than other people. Some people want to spread their money evenly throughout their retirement.
"Some people want to do things between the age of 60 and 75 that they fear that they won't be able to do later because of health restrictions, so those people may want to draw down their RRSPs a little more quickly in the early years of retirement.''
Earlier this week, Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory vowed to unlock the full amount if elected.
Premier Dalton McGuinty's Liberal government committed in the March budget to unlock a quarter of locked-in pension funds at age 55, suggesting anything more would defeat the purpose of building a pension plan with steady payments.
"The most important thing is to maintain a flexibility between giving seniors acess to these pensions funds and at the same time respecting the agreement, or the contract, that was really at the heart of these funds,'' Finance Minister Greg Sorbara said.
While the NDP introduced a private member's bill in 2006 to fully unlock the funds, the groups say the party hasn't followed up on the plan, nor has it included it in its election platform.
New Democrat Leader Howard Hampton said the party has set aside a day later in the campaign to deal specifically with pensions and income security, but noted it's a "complex'' issue.
"We want to see a consistent pension package. For example, we think the pension guarantee fund has to be topped up,'' he said.
"We think there has to be a change in pension legislation and within that context we would unlock pensions to the degree that they're talking about.''
He said it can't be a "one-off'' decision and must be part of a larger pension package otherwise it risks leaving people vulnerable.
