A little over two years ago, Daniel Kahneman wrote a seminal book on human behaviour and perceptions, titled Thinking, Fast and Slow. In the book, Kahneman makes the following observation, “A reliable way to make people believe in falsehoods is frequent repetition because familiarity is not easily distinguished from truth.” I would submit that this phenomenon is the basis for the widespread belief that Canada is suffering a national retirement crisis. The frequent repetition in the media that Canadians are not preparing themselves adequately for retirement certainly has to colour our thinking on the matter.
The Saskatchewan Pension Plan (SPP) has been called “Canada’s best-kept secret” and a “made-in-Saskatchewan success story,” with the potential to do for pension reform what medicare did for healthcare in the country. SPP general manager Katherine Strutt refers to it as “an overnight sensation that only took 28 years.”
The Canadian retirement system is unproductive and inefficient, but how do we tame this administrative beast without toppling the entire system? Taming it requires simplicity, efficiency and uniformity, not new schemes that add complexity and cost to employing workers.
Potential conflicts of interest a huge concern in Part 1 of this series on PRPPs.
Canada’s pension system has a large problem that needs addressing—and the sooner, the better. Our pension system is often characterized as a stool supported by three legs: public pensions, in the form of the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and old age security (OAS); workplace pensions [registered pension plans (RPPs)] featuring employer and some employee contributions; and personal retirement savings via RRSPs for individual contributions.
When I came back to work last August after my second maternity leave, it was with a renewed sense of eagerness and anticipation. What new developments had occurred during my absence? How had pension reform progressed? What had changed over the course of the year?
From Frontlines in the January 2014 issue: The top five pension and benefits developments of 2013, a hiring outlook, news about the state of the CPP, Market Watch, The Month in Numbers and more!
While an attempt to enhance the Canada Pension Plan was stopped earlier this week, supporters of an expansion aren’t giving up.
A survey shows that an expanded Canada/Quebec Pension Plan (C/QPP) is considered to be the best way to improve Canada's retirement income system.
Minister of State for Finance Kevin Sorenson says expanding the Canada Pension Plan will kill jobs.