A young federal public service retiree, back to working 15 hours a week at a store near her home to pay for groceries and electricity, is keeping the money from the family’s empty cans for her grandchildren.
“Let’s say part-time work helps cover certain things,” Nicole Lévesque, 69, told the Journal last Monday in Beloeil.
“You can use this to pay for excess food and electricity. “All the bills are higher,” breathes the man who retired four years ago.
She says she enjoys working, if only to help out amid the labor shortage.
In 2040, more than 28% of the population will be 65 years and older. However, when people are tighter, they will spend less. The economy will slow and governments will have to take responsibility, Yves Carrière, a professor of demography at the University of Montreal, told the Journal.
“A growing number of Quebecers are making a gradual transition from the labor market to retirement. “It is imperative to separate the retirement age, whether progressive or not, from the age at which public benefits begin,” analyzed Frédérick Hallé-Rochon and Luc Godbout in a study by the Research Chair in Taxation and Public Finance at the University of Sherbrooke, last published month.
“We rarely go to restaurants”
In the meantime, Quebecers must make arrangements for their arrival. At the Journal, Nicole Lévesque doesn’t talk for long: “We don’t go to restaurants, rarely,” says the woman who has been working part-time for two years.
While federal retirees and current employees are still fighting for their paychecks due to the Phoenix System disaster, Nicole is spared from this mess, unlike the thousands of others still enduring the ordeal.
When Le Journal met her, Nicole was bringing the family’s empty cans to the supermarket in a huge bag to encourage the new generation. “We collect the cans and the money goes into the bank of the two grandchildren,” she concludes.
Earlier this month, Le Journal reported that even the 20-cent can will soon be worth just 10 cents.
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