Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and his provincial counterparts have found an issue they can all agree on. There is no crisis in Canada’s retirement system.

Media coverage had suggested the ministers’ meeting in Whitehorse on Friday was influenced by two reports with very different conclusions. An Ontario-commissioned report by pension consultant Bob Baldwin suggested that three-quarters of private-sector workers have no access to pensions, and that weaknesses in Canada’s pension system will leave a “significant minority” of middle- and upper-class Canadians much poorer in retirement than they are now.

The other report, by University of Calgary professor Jack Mintz, found that about 80% of all Canadian households are saving enough to replace 90% of their working income in retirement. This was the analysis accepted by the Ministers.

“We have some pointed questions that are being asked about which group or groups of Canadians actually need pension reform, whether the reforms should be solely in the public sector or the private sector or a combination,” federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty told reporters in Whitehorse on Friday.

“It’s certainly not a system in crisis,” said Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan.

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Ottawa and the provinces will now focus on the range of pension reform options with the goal of some sort of new national program. The ministers are scheduled to meet again for further talks, possibly in May.

None of the ministers would comment on any possible solutions, such as the Alberta/B.C. (ABC) supplemental plan or changes to the Canada Pension Plan. For their part, the finance ministers of the two westernmost provinces said they were satisfied with the current pace of reform and appeared to back away somewhat from their talk of implementing the new plan. The B.C. government had promised its workers a new pension plan system for 2010, but Finance Minister Colin Hansen now says that having a national plan is paramount.

Alberta Finance Minister Iris Evans said that “momentum” was growing for Ottawa and the provinces to adopt a “pan-Canadian” strategy to deal with gaps in the retirement system, and that if such a strategy was not forthcoming in a reasonable timeframe, Alberta would deliver a solution for its citizens.

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