Canada's Actuaries Call on Governments to Move Quickly on Pensions

OTTAWA, Nov. 10, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The federal, provincial, and territorial governments have a "once-in-a-generation opportunity to ensure Canada's retirement system meets the needs of current and future retirees," said Rob Stapleford, President of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries (CIA), the national voice of the actuarial profession in Canada.

"While the federal government certainly has a full agenda, pensions should, and indeed must, remain near the top of the to-do list," Mr. Stapleford said. "The pension stars have aligned for Prime Minister Trudeau—his political capital is high, provincial good will is strong, and federal leadership is needed," he added. "What's more, the Minister of Finance is a pension expert. This is as good as it gets."

Mr. Stapleford's comments accompany a recent CIA report entitled A Call to Timely Action: Meeting the Needs of Canada's Future Retirees, in which the CIA outlines the steps the federal and provincial governments should take to build a better retirement system for Canadians. The report also addresses the issue of Canada/Québec Pension Plan expansion.

The Canadian retirement system is at a crossroads due to a convergence of forces, including increased longevity, prolonged low interest rates, volatile equity markets, emergence of new types of pension plans such as shared risk/jointly-sponsored and target benefit plans, and a shift by many private defined benefit plans to a defined contribution model.

Indeed, the trouble Canadians face is a piecemeal and disjointed approach to pension plans, which, if unchanged, will lead to an unduly confusing and burdensome rearrangement of the Canadian pension system, and ultimately, an inefficient outcome.

The CIA report is the result of discussions with experienced industry experts, particularly those who have been involved for years in the design, administration, and funding of private and public pension plans.