The Quebec government has announced a plan to expand the Quebec Pension Plan in line with reforms to the Canada Pension Plan. As part of the changes, the government will establish an additional component to the QPP, similar to the planned reforms to the CPP. There will be the basic plan, which has been in effect […]
A new report on income security in Ontario is recommending that the provincial government expand the provision of essential health benefits to all low-income people and modernize income and asset rules to ensure people can save for the future, according to a new report by the income security reform working groups. A substantial component of Ontario’s […]
Employees’ retirement plans are affected by how long they stay in the workforce. Whether or not they work past 65 often depends on government policy, which ultimately affects all Canadians no matter their ages. The previous Conservative government raised the eligibility age for the old-age security benefit to 67 from 65 to save on costs […]
There’s little doubt that working Canadians want a secure source of retirement income. The challenge for the pension industry is how to deliver the desired retirement income in a sustainable manner. In April 2017, the Canadian Public Pension Leadership Council published the results of a survey that provided key takeaways that will be useful to governments, policy-makers […]
It seems the current pension crisis — whether it be over reform of the Canada Pension Plan or high levels of underfunding among private plans — is always the most significant one yet. But as past issues of Benefits Canada going all the way back to the first one in 1977 show, alarm about the […]
While today marks the one-year anniversary of Ottawa reaching an agreement with most of the provinces to expand the Canada Pension Plan, the future of the Quebec Pension Plan remains up in the air. While the enhanced CPP will take effect in 2019, there’s still uncertainty around what Quebec will do with the QPP. The […]
The enhancements to the Canada Pension Plan are problematic and incomplete and won’t do much to improve the retirement income prospects of low-income employees, according to a new study by the Institute for Research on Public Policy. The study, authored by pension consultant Bob Baldwin and statistician Richard Shillington, does acknowledge that the Liberal government […]
Nearly half the Canadians who seek to have decisions denying them access to Canada Pension Plan disability benefits are successfully appealing the rulings, according to a new statistic that is giving experts cause for concern. The figures illustrate what has happened in the year since Canada’s auditor general excoriated the government for its handling of […]
Consultant says fix Canada’s pension system by harmonizing retirement ages.
From 2011-16, as the first baby boomers turned 65, Canada saw its senior population increase by 20 per cent, newly released census data from Statistics Canada shows. The growth was much faster than that of the overall population, which increased by five per cent. “Many aspects of Canadian society are being shaped by the fact that the first […]