Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty introduced measures today encouraging older workers to stay on the job longer by providing employers the flexibility to offer phased retirement programs. The 2007 budget, unveiled earlier this afternoon, proposes amending the Income Tax Regulations to allow employees to receive pension benefits from a defined benefit (DB) registered pension plan […]
Ontario will need approximately 560,000 more workers by the year 2030 to maintain projected potential growth in the province, according to the Conference Board of Canada. That translates into an implied unemployment rate of minus 1%, said Paul Darby, deputy chief economist at the Conference Board of Canada, speaking at an event in Toronto earlier […]
Canadian pension plans have another ethical investment option at their disposal now that Pier 21 Asset Management is opening access to the Pier 21 WorldWide Ethical Strategy. The strategy, launched in 2001, is sub-advised by Copenhagen-based Carnegie Asset Management and is now available in Canada exclusively through Pier 21 Asset Management. Carnegie teams up with […]
© Copyright 2007 Rogers Publishing Ltd. The following article first appeared in the February 2007 edition of BENEFITS CANADA magazine. Supersized The major players in Canada’s custody industry are getting larger. But is bigger really better? By Don Bisch Last December, when The Bank of New York and Mellon Financial announced their agreement to […]
When I hear the words “two tier,” my thoughts automatically jump to Canada’s healthcare system. These days, the phrase immediately elicits images of people paying cash at private clinics to bypass long wait lists for joint replacements or CT scans. Of late, however, the words “two tier” are being applied to pensions. Most recently, it […]
It was former Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau who once compared living next to the United States to sleeping with an elephant. “No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt,” quipped Trudeau in 1969. I doubt Trudeau had pensions and […]
Whenever a serious problem needs solving in this country, we take a uniquely Canadian approach: form a commission to study it and report back in a couple of years. The pension issue is no exception. Last month, the Ontario government announced the creation of an expert commission to examine the legislation governing defined benefit(DB) pension […]
The Bank of New York and Mellon Financial have agreed to merge in a deal that will create the largest securities servicing company in the world. The new company—with $16.6 trillion in assets under custody and $1.1 trillion assets under management—will be called The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation. “Through this merger, we will […]
The Supreme Court of Canada’s recent decision in Buschau v. Rogers Communications Inc. signals a change in the Court’s approach to pension plans, according to a pension law expert. In its decision, handed down in June, the Court noted that employers establish pension plans because it is in their interest to do so, said Kathryn […]
When the federal government delivered temporary solvency relief to federally regulated pensions in its spring budget, many expressed hope that it signalled a willingness among policymakers to finally tackle the problems facing Canada’s private pension system. But we shouldn’t get our hopes too high—at least not anytime soon. Delegates at the recent Association of Canadian […]