The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

th ei fp .c a Th e IF P -H al to n H ill s | T hu rs da y, M ar ch 19 ,2 02 0 | 6 ABOUT US This newspaper, published every Thursday, is a division of the Metroland Media Group Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Torstar Corporation. The Metroland family of newspapers is comprised of more than 80 community publications across Ontario. This newspaper is a member of the National NewsMedia Council. Complainants are urged to bring their concerns to the attention of the news- paper and, if not satisfied, write The National NewsMedia Council, Suite 200, 890 Yonge St., Toronto, ON M4W 2H2. Phone: 416-340-1981 Web: www.mediacouncil.ca newsroom@theifp.ca IndependentAndFreePress @IFP_11 WHO WE ARE Publisher Kelly Montague Regional General Manager Steve Foreman Regional Managing Editor Catherine O'Hara Managing Editor Karen Miceli Distribution Representative Iouliana Polar Real Estate Kristie Pells Regional Production Manager Manuel Garcia Production Shelli Harrison Halton Media General Manager Vicki Dillane CONTACT US The Independent & Free Press 280 Guelph Street, Unit 77 Georgetown, ON L7G 4B1 Phone: 905-873-0301 Classifieds: 1-800-263-6480 Fax: 905-873-0398 Letters to the editor All letters must be fewer than 320 words and include your name and telephone number for verification purposes. We reserve the right to edit, condense or reject letters. Published letters will appear in print and/or online at theifp.ca Delivery For all delivery inquiries, please e-mail lpolar@miltoncanadianchampion.com or call 905-234-1019. OPINION TO LEARN HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR OWN CONTENT VISIT THEIFP.CA EDITORIAL Remember when coronavirus seemed to be something a long way from here? It was ravaging China, which is no small matter. But it could be observed with concern, from a safe distance.No longer. With each passing day we are finding just how much the virus and the COVID-19 illness it causes are here, right among us. Halton had its first case last week, then another. It is now virtually a given that the virus is spreading to towns, cities and countryside near you. This, as the saying goes, is where things get real. We heard that the Trudeau government is investing $1 billion in health and research around COVID-19. That's impressive, but will it be enough? We have heard repeat- edly that Ontario hospitals, already operating at capac- ity, strained at the seams and brutally underfunded by the province, cannot stand up to a full-blown pandemic. That is what we have been told time and again by hospitals, their unions, doctors and health experts. Suc- cessive provincial governments have failed in their at- tempts to get the balance right between reforming the system and ensuring adequate care and resources are available. Now we face a full-blown crisis. There is no time to waste. The Ford and Trudeau governments have to get together and make emergency funding available to open unfunded beds. There needs to be money available for hospitals and other health authorities to recruit retired doctors and nurses to fill in and deal with the surge that is almost certainly coming. Extraordinary measures are needed to ensure ade- quate equipment, from testing kits to respirators, is available. Hospital staff, especially, need protective equipment. One thing that Canada has done right so far is do extensive testing and screening. That needs to be stepped up again with new cases being reported daily. And testing needs to move out of Emergency Rooms and into the community. Authorities in Toronto are plan- ning for at least one testing facility to be drive through -- as in, drive in, get swabbed, drive out. How's that for limiting contact? By way of comparison, there is a short- age of testing kits available in the U.S. and people who should be tested are not being. That's a recipe for disas- ter. On that note, the state of America is always a concern given our proximity and open borders. But now, more than ever, we need to be aware of what is happening in the U.S. Even if Canada does everything right, how safe are we considering the hundreds of thousands of border cross- ings that take place every day, all along our unsecured border? We don't have to encourage you to worry about your friends and loved ones. But we should all also worry about and keep an eye on neighbours, particularly peo- ple vulnerable due to age or other factors. Surely, if there ever was a time to stand together (although not too close) as communities, this is it. COLLABORATION AND UNITY CAN FIGHT CORONAVIRUS SNAPSHOT A robin in a Georgetown backyard marks a sure sign of spring. Got a great local photo you'd like to share? Send it to sleblanc@metroland.com, along with a brief description. Tony Fortunato photo Retirement is not al- ways the way you imagine. Ipsos conducted a poll on behalf of RBC. The 1,800 Canadians surveyed were 55 years and older with re- tirement assets of at least $100,000. More than half of the people surveyed anticipat- ed knowing their retire- ment date one year in ad- vance. The reality was just under 40 per cent had that much notice. No advance warning of retirement was given by 16 per cent of the respondents. That has significant fi- nancial implications for re- tirement. Continuing to earn an income to build your retirement nest egg is how people plan for retire- ment. Knowing when that in- come will stop can be crit- ical to your planning. Apparently, the dream of spending our cold win- ters in the sunny south is just a dream. Approxi- mately one-third of the sur- veyed group plan to mi- grate south, but only about half do. This could be as a result of preferring to continue living the retirement life in Canada. For some, it might have to do with the added cost of travel. The largest misconcep- tion about retirement has to do with anticipating some work in your golden years. Half the group said they planned to have at least some ongoing employment after they retire. Only 11 per cent of those polled were successful at finding work. Not knowing the fu- ture -- and accounting for that uncertainty -- is a useful principal for person- al retirement planning. You do not know how life will unfold. Plan for sever- al different outcomes. Cash flow projection is the best planning tool. An- ticipate what might hap- pen during retirement, then budget how those fu- ture events will be fi- nanced. Then change your as- sumptions; including a re- tirement date; amount you anticipate spending and the investment return you expect from your invest- ment portfolio. We recommend your own personal retirement planning account for sever- al different scenarios. Peter Watson, of Watson Investments MBA, CFP®, R.F.P., CIM®, FCSI offers a weekly financial plan- ning column, 'Dollars & Sense'. He can be contacted through www.watsonin- vestments.com. BUILD FLEXIBILITY INTO YOUR RETIREMENT PLANNING RESEARCH SHOWS US THAT CANADIANS' THOUGHTS ABOUT THEIR RETIREMENT ARE DIFFERENT THAN REALITY, WRITES PETER WATSON PETER WATSON Column