Canadian old men and old women make up a considerable part of the crowd of well-dressed and wealthy tourists strolling across countries and continents. Like all pensioners in the world, they have plenty of free time. Like few pensioners in the world, they can afford to live it up in their old age. And they even spoil their smaller friends - they order a specialist to their home for dog grooming and a spa salon for their cats. They spend money inventively and lavishly, and without sacrificing their own interests, they help their children and grandchildren. How is the amount that an elderly Canadian receives as a pension formed?
All holders of Canadian citizenship or permanent residence who have turned 65 receive an old-age pension. There is also another pension – from work. It is made up of funds that you, if you have your own business, set aside in a pension fund during your life (for yourself and your employees), or funds that you set aside in a pension fund as an employee of a company. Those who are not entirely sure of their future can additionally open a special bank account and deposit up to $2,000 annually. This investment in one's own old age is very profitable because money spent this way is not taxed. Pensions of all types and kinds are summed up, and having pension savings does not affect the ability to receive a pension from the state. There is, however, an "upper ceiling" on the amount of the pension, but even those who spend their meager old-age money on a huge apartment with separate quarters for a housekeeper – and pay a decent salary to that same housekeeper (i.e., "house manager") – do not reach it.
The next item in forming pension income is discounts and benefits. There are discounts on housing: an apartment whose rent costs $1,000 will cost a pensioner $280. Pensioners receive medications for free. Once a week, a pensioner has the right to order a car (like a taxi) that will take them to any part of the city – also free. A single fare on public transport, which currently costs two dollars, costs a pensioner eighty-five cents.
The well-being of pensioners is largely facilitated by the active care of social services. Every week, a woman – a social worker – comes to the pensioner and does the accumulated housework: cleans, cooks. For a sick or disabled pensioner, they come two to three times a week. They can bathe them, chat with them, tell them the news, take them for a walk in the park. The duration of the social worker's "goodwill visit" is three to four hours a day.
A pensioner for whom living at home is either too difficult or uncomfortable can move to a nursing home. Life in such a home is quite expensive – precisely because it is a life of pleasure. The pensioner has a personal nurse, a personal doctor. They can furnish their room with furniture of their own choice. They can order breakfasts, lunches, and dinners according to a menu they compose themselves. They can receive guests. They try to entertain them: various clubs are created at nursing homes, concerts are organized. The nursing home resident retains all state benefits due to them; the money they have to pay for their stay is a fee for service. The amount is considerable, but as a rule, the entire pension is not consumed by the cost of staying in a nursing home.
Another form of "pensioner dormitories" is houses where only pensioners live. These are apartment buildings where an elderly person has not just a separate room but a decent-sized dwelling. They differ from ordinary tenants in that they receive special attention from social services. For example, about every other day, a special bus arrives at such a house, taking residents shopping to a large shopping complex with cafes, restaurants, shops, and workshops. Each pensioner is looked after by nurses and social service workers – exactly to the extent that they need it.
Finally, about the sad. The rosy stories of pensioners' lives end, you know how. They are buried. If the deceased or their relatives have funds for the funeral, they are buried at their own expense. As a rule, bodies are cremated; the tombstones placed at the burial site of the ashes are small, so cemeteries in Canada are also small and can even be located in the city center. Despite the apparent severity of treatment of the deceased, funerals are most often a rather lavish and lengthy ceremony held in a specially designated house. (For those interested in details, I recommend Evelyn Waugh's novel "The Loved One," entirely devoted to this topic.)
The average cost of a "private" funeral is 12,000 Canadian dollars. Indigent people, those who live "on social assistance" (that is, in complete dependence on social services), can be buried on credit – so that later, relatives who start earning gradually repay the debt to the state. A significant part of "social assistance recipients" are people with refugee status among newcomers. The corresponding national community often takes on the trouble of arranging funerals for such people.
Canadian cats, dogs, and canaries can count on a final resting place as confidently as their older brothers. Ukrainian city dwellers are not surprised by dog cemeteries either, but Canadian animal cemeteries are more luxurious than those arranged for Shariks, Druzhoks, and Jims. They are distinguished by urn-shaped vases; dog graves are abundantly strewn with flowers. A system of individual social security for animals has not yet been invented, but that does not prevent owners from caring for their pets privately. They told of a man whose main heir turned out to be... a cat. From its owner, it received three million dollars. The money was transferred, however, not to the cat itself, but to a guardian chosen by the testator: so that he would look after the cat until the end of his days, pampering it in every way, after its death bury it where the owner had instructed, and subsequently, as long as he lived, tend to the grave.