Corporate
Spin-Doctors and the Canada Pension Plan
BY JOYCE NELSON
Over the past year, Canadians
have been subjected to a well orchestrated "disinformation" campaign
on public pension issues. Standing to profit enormously from changes to the
Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and the elimination of Old Age Security, a host of
powerful financial interests are selling the public on the need for drastic
"reforms."
One public relations firm in particular has taken the lead in this campaign: Earnscliffe Strategy Group and its Research and Communications division.
Earnscliffe was founded in 1991 by three long-time public relations pros:
Harry Near, Brian Mulroney's 1984 and 1988 election campaign manager: Bill
Fox.. Mulroney=s's
former press secretary (now retired); and Michael Robinson, campaign manager
for Paul Martin's 1990 leadership bid.
The Earnscliffe Research and Communications branch has been advising Martin's Finance Department since 1993. The company also has strong ties to corporations which have a direct stake in changes to the CPP. Earnscliffe clients include: Westcoast Energy Inc., whose chair and CEO is also a director of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC); and a division of NOVA Corp., whose chair, Richard F. Haskayne also sits as a CIBC director.
On August 10, the Globe and Mail gave front-page coverage to an Earnscliffe survey for Finance last Winter. The poll, Earnscliffe claimed, shows Canadians favour private RRSPs instead of public pensions.
However, the timing of the coverage of Earnscliffe's poll - just before the ministers gather to discuss recommendations on reforming the CPP - is more than fortuitous. It comes at the end of a protracted media disinformation campaign to weaken public support for our pension system.
'Biassed' media coverage
Between January 1, 1996, and July 31, 1996, the Globe and Mail ran 13 news items about the CPP -- hardly heavy coverage of such an important issue. Within these stories, a total of 26 people were interviewed as "experts." Only three, all from the Canadian Labour Congress, voiced a perspective different from that of big business.
During the same period, the Globe and Mail ran three editorials on pension issues, two of which relied entirely on information provided by the C.D. Howe Institute, a conservative think-tank advocating deep cuts to the CPP. By no coincidence, at least four bank executives sit on the board of directors of C.D. Howe. And the Globe is part of the Thomson newspaper chain which is advised by National Public Relations, a firm that has many financial industry clients.
Manufacturing an intergenerational crisis
But perhaps the real public relations coup in this whole disinformation campaign was the emergence of Aintergenerational infighting@ - the depiction of the CPP as "unfair" to younger people. Much of this rhetoric came from the little known Canadian Youth Foundation (CYF), whose spokesperson, Mike Grant, has received extensive media coverage on his pro-business CPP views.
Grant, a former Conference Board of Canada researcher who does not consider himself a Ayouth," told me the federal government set up the CYF in 1986 to give voice to youth on various issues. The CYF, which has no members, also receives funding from big corporations like CIBC and the Royal Bank who have a vested interest in the fate of public pensions. In fact, the president and chair of CYFs board, David McGowan, is head of public relations~ for CIBC.
The corporate agenda
The real motive for reforming~ our pension system is evident in the socalled discussion paper used for cross-country hearings on the CPP. The paper proposed a dozen ways to cut back our pension plan and offered a big carrot to the private pension industry by recommending CPP funds be managed by private sector investment firms.
The final consultation report goes one step further. It proposes the $40 billion CPP reserve not only be managed by private firms, but that it be invested overseas, as well as domestically. That would mean lifting legal restrictions on the foreign investment of private-sector pension portfolios, including RRSP=s. The foreign content of such investment has been limited to 20 per cent to encourage firms to invest in Canada. Now, the private sector is hopeful plans to reform the CPP would end the 20 per cent rule.
Turning aver management of the CPP to private investors will not benefit
the country or the present or future pensioners. But the "manufacture
of consent" on this has been truly amazing.
Joyce Nelson publishes LYNX: A Monthly Newsletter in the public interest,
James Bay P.O., Box 39012,
Victoria, BC V8V 4X8