To eliminate its retirement income insecurity, Canada needs to overhaul every aspect of its retirement system, instead of simply focusing on whether to expand the Canada Pension Plan (CPP).
This is what a new report by The Mowat Centre, a think tank at the University of Toronto, calls for.
Read: Canadians prefer TFSAs, RRSPs over CPP expansion
Because the issue of inadequate retirement savings affects many groups and is caused by multiple problems, Canada needs to think about fixing the retirement system as a whole—not just the CPP, the report argues.
“While the recent debate over whether retirement savings should be enhanced as part of reforms in either pillar 2 (i.e. bigger CPP/QPP) or pillar 3 (a voluntary savings vehicle) is an important one, it avoids the bigger vision.”
Read: Ottawa won’t co-operate on ORPP
Solutions
This bigger vision should include increasing government benefits for vulnerable groups such as senior singles, raising the retirement age to manage longevity risk and mandating increased retirement savings for people who aren’t enrolled in private workplace pensions—for example, by expanding the CPP.
Read: CPP enhancement, ORPP could reduce voluntary savings: Report