You Don't Want to Retire, According to the CBC

Do you want to work for approximately 45 years then enjoy the fruits of your labour as you relax and finally, after all that time, see some semblance of calm? Well according to the CBC. You’re in the minority. That’s silly, you should want to work more.

That’s the essential thrust of the CBC article “Most Canadians don’t want to retire. Here’s why” by Maryse Zeidler. Crested between the sunny headline and a smiling image of an old woman kneading dough at a bakery comes the nuance. The reasons range from “financial concerns to deeper issues of purpose.”

The article stems from a Statistics Canada study about Canadians working past retirement, and how those who plan to retire would continue working “if they could reduce their hours and stress.”

Note that this is a survey of Canadians “planning” to retire, not those who are at retirement age.

Before we get to the glaringly obvious “but” here. There are numerous other issues with this piece. First, let’s evaluate the study that spawned it. For those who are completely retired, 35 per cent of men and 28.2 per cent of women said that financial reasons dictated their retirement. What does “financial reasons” mean? Well StatsCan explains, “People in this group reported that the most important factor was either that they were financially ready, they had qualified for a pension, or had deferred the start of their Old Age Security pension in exchange for a larger amount.”

The next largest cohort of reasons for retirement were health issues (22.8 per cent for men and 22.9 per cent for women). Put together, the majority of Canadians of retirement age did so because they would be financially secure, or because they needed to stop working for their health.

The reasons in the piece for planning to continue working ranged from having more flexible hours, less stress, opportunities to do “more interesting work,” pay increases, or improvements in health. Note that the financial considerations involved were not included for these reasons.

That isn’t to say that all of these people are in dire straits, or that they need the money, but that “do you plan on continuing retirement because you are unable to afford bills” was not included in why their reasoning. Though the conclusion may be predicted by being sandwiched between the previously mentioned financial considerations and the stat about higher pay being a motivator, it cannot be parsed out from this study.

But the CBC piece decides to bury that part of the story, in favour of a more rosy outlook about the state of work in the country.

The first source they quote is Louis Primavera, a psychologist who wrote a book about the complicated dimensions of retirement. Primavera’s comments are more illustrative than the piece thought it would be. “Work creates an identity for us,” he said. “It creates a social system for us.” He then says 30 per cent of retirees never adjust, but those who do find a schedule, discover their identity and retire with their partner.

Red flags should be waving immediately. Our identities are intrinsically tied into work, where our social system is also largely created. Without these things, people may feel lost and lonely. Is no one concerned that the largest pillars for identity and social interaction takes place in an environment that creates profits for corporations? No one at the CBC is, apparently. This dynamic shouldn’t be stated as a neutral fact. The very idea that the workplace is often the sole source of social contact and identity for many people is alarming, and should be treated as such.

Next, the article pulls from former CBC Radio Vancouver host Rick Cluff, who worked for 20 years hosting The Early Edition. He pines about how he misses the job, including the “electricity of going into work every day.”

Surprisingly, most retirement-age Canadians are not radio hosts who interviewed politicians and discovered new and interesting stories almost every day. Cluff’s experience is not universally applicable, nor would any reasoned person think it’s comparable to something like fast-food work, where senior workers almost matched teenagers in 2018.

Bear in mind, this was from five years ago, what is the rate of seniors in the fast-food industry in 2023? Who’s to say? Certainly not the CBC. Instead, those who retired are best showcased as those who led exciting careers taking to the airwaves every morning.

The true kicker comes halfway through the piece, under the subheader “The money factor.”

That’s right, it takes scrolling past someone who spent 20 years being a radio host and a psychologist pointing out that work’s central focus in our life is a neutral thing for the CBC to mention something important. Namely, that they previously reported a 2022 Labour Force Survey by Statistics Canada that found “People employed at age 60 and older are more likely to work by necessity rather than by choice.”

So this piece’s headline is “Most Canadians don’t want to retire,” and inside they link to a Radio Canada piece headlined “Canadians are working past retirement, but not because they want to.”

But this confusing twist is quickly rebuffed by a “personal financy columnist” who suggests people in retirementy simply work outside of the “Monday to Friday, nine to five” dynamic. Hobbies? Travel? Activities? Writing? Learning new skills? No, the solution is work, but differently.

The piece then ends by citing someone who retired from the Kamloops School District in 2003, but then went on to work for a non-profit that allowed him to travel across the world for 15 years, and him teaching first aid for another decade. Something, you could do if you put off retirement, too! Presumably.

The CBC has done something remarkable here. The cognitive dissonance inside this piece exemplifies a narrative that working in your retirement years is not something to be feared, and in fact is something that one should look forward to. You could travel the world with a non-profit! You’ll miss the excitement of work, akin to doing a morning radio show for one of our largest cities! You’ll lose your identity and social circle (pay no attention to why work is the biggest source of these things)!

In reality, most Canadians working in retirement are doing so because they are unable to afford the rising cost of living. Seniors are struggling to find housing, and supplies are falling behind. Other stories on retirement waffle in smaller ways, but Global News in a similar piece earlier this year quoted the chief policy officer of the Canadian Association of Retired Persons. He put it bluntly, “Things like gasoline, groceries, rent, mortgages — all those things have really hit seniors very, very hard.”

The response to this? Not to provide more avenues for social interaction and identity outside of work, institute pension reform, or build mass-housing for our aging population, none of which are explored in the CBC piece. The solution is to work, apparently. Flexible and part-time work, but work all the same. Not because it continues to build profits for employers, but because it’s what you want.