On November 25, 2008, Attorney General Wally Oppal, QC cited with approval the CBABC, including CBABC President Miriam Maisonville's Vancouver Sun article "Protecting Retirement Savings from Seizure," regarding Bill 45 and the CBABC RRSP exemption statute.

Hon. W. Oppal: I rise to speak in support of this bill. Specifically, I'm going to deal with the amendments to the Court Order Enforcement Act that exempt registered retirement savings plans from seizure by creditors. It amends the Pension Benefits Standards Act to ensure that additional voluntary contributions to pensions are similarly protected and amends the Law and Equity Act to give effect to the beneficiary designation made when registering a tax-free savings account.

These changes protect registered savings, retirement savings, and further the government's economic plan. The legislation also anticipates the use of new tax-free savings accounts created by the federal government and ensures that beneficiaries designated in those accounts receive the funds as expected.

Madam Speaker, we are living in difficult economic times, and there is a concern — a real concern — that personal bankruptcies may appear to be on the rise. Many, many British Columbians do not have either corporate pension plans or government pension plans.

This is good legislation. It benefits many, many of our citizens. I want to make reference to an op-ed article that appeared in today's Vancouver Sun under the authorship of Miriam Maisonville, who is the president of the B.C. branch of the Canadian Bar Association.

Last weekend I attended a meeting of the Canadian Bar Association, and the membership there unanimously commended the government for this specific legislation that protects retirement savings from seizure.

[Excerpt Hansard 1510, Copyright (c) 2008: British Columbia Hansard Services, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.]

Read Attorney General Oppal's full statement as published in Hansard [item 1510].

Update: On November 27, 2008, the BC Legislative Assembly passed the Economic Incentive and Stabilization Statutes Amendment Act, 2008 (Bill 45), which enacts, among other things, protection for retirement savings from an enforcement process initiated against a registered plan from November 1, 2008.

[posted November 26, 2008]