©  Copyright 2002 Rogers Media. The following article first appeared in the February 2002 edition of BENEFITS CANADA magazine.

Among those parties reacting to proposals for pension plan reform, one important group is strangely silent. This is the plan sponsor community--the voice that most needs to be, but is not often, heard. Where are the plan sponsors? And why are they not speaking up?

Perhaps plan sponsors have no opinion on potential reforms, or they do not care. Perhaps they think they will not be listened to, or that they do not have sufficient knowledge of the issues at hand.

Perhaps plan sponsors do not want to draw attention to themselves and prefer to leave pension reform to consultants, service providers and trade associations. Then again, for whatever reason, plan sponsors may have simply become conformists when it comes to regulatory policy and requirements, willing to go along with whatever the regulators have in store for them.

The silence of plan sponsors is probably due to all of the above, albeit in differing degrees. But each reason is a troubling commentary on the state of Canada's productivity, and our ability to foster a climate in which citizens can live and work with a reasonable likelihood of achieving lifetime self-sufficiency.

FRESH PERSPECTIVE NEEDED
Think, for example, about the initiatives on which the pension bureaucracy is soliciting comments. They include Ontario's recommendations for surplus sharing, the Joint Forum of Financial Market Regulators' proposals for defined contribution plans and the Canadian Association of Pension Supervisory Authorities' proposals for a pension governance guideline and implementation tool, as well as regulatory guidelines for electronic communications.

If ever there was a time for plan sponsors to become actively and directly involved in the process of rulemaking and standard-setting, it is now. This would not detract from the good work of the Association of Canadian Pension Management (ACPM) and the Pension Investment Association of Canada (PIAC). Instead it would supplement and add fresh perspectives--particularly in making known the views of plan sponsors, trustees and plan members of small and medium-sized plans.

It would also help frame the development of pragmatic, effective standards for defined contribution plans--an area that has sometimes been outside the focus of ACPM and PIAC responses.

TIME FOR CHANGE
It is time for Canada's business community to speak up, and move the issues at hand to the top executive and board of director levels. It is time to insist that governments rethink and refocus on what is needed to develop workplace initiatives that provide a continuing income stream.

It is time to focus efforts on increasing peoples' knowledge and awareness of underlying issues so that there can be meaningful debate leading to well-reasoned, holistic policy initiatives. Most importantly, this effort must include all of the people who make up 'business Canada'--the Canadian public, individual members of parliament and legislative assemblies, and, yes, regulators.

Before getting involved in the minutiae of regulation by 14 Canadian jurisdictions, there is a need to focus on the big issues. These include the need to gain a shared understanding of the role of workplace compensation, both immediate and deferred, in enabling Canadians to achieve lifetime self-sufficiency. We must also consider the fact that given an increasingly healthy and long-lived population, the notion of retirement embodied in current plan design is no longer sustainable.

It is essential that plan sponsors emerge from their conformity and silence and get the right issues on the table for debate and resolution. Let's not let bureaucrats set the agenda and make self-perpetuating policies that address yesterday's issues. BC

Glorianne Stromberg is the author of two key industry reports: Regulatory Strategies for the Mid-90s and Investment Funds in Canada and Consumer Protection. gstromberg@sympatico.ca.

The Romanow Commission has released its final report on the future of healthcare in Canada.

For Commissioner Romanow's recommendations, click here.

Click here for Senator Michael Kirby's report, "The Health of Canadians – The Federal Role: Recommendations for Reform."