Canada’s finance ministers have scheduled a meeting for June 19-20 in Vancouver to discuss ways to reform the Canada Pension Plan, the Globe and Mail is reporting.
The Liberals have promised to enhance the CPP and Finance Minister Bill Morneau said during the Budget in March the government would launch consultations in the following months to give Canadians an opportunity to share their views on enhancing the CPP.
Budget 2016: Government to consult on enhanced CPP
In an interview with Benefits Canada‘s sister publication Advisor in April, Morneau said: “We’ve committed to work together with the provinces to enhance the CPP to deal with current and emerging gaps in retirement readiness. We recognize there are many young Canadians not saving enough and also see that firms have changed or eliminated or never picked up pension plans, which means that the next generation may be worse off than the current generation.
“Our approach is working with the provinces to see if we have the ability to get agreement that we can move forward on a CPP enhancement. I’m cautiously optimistic that we can, but as you know, this is something that needs to be negotiated. I’m working on that now.”
Read: Bill Morneau on CPP reform, the ORPP and future tax changes
According to the Globe and Mail article, sources say Ottawa and the provinces have been in talks at both the political and public-service levels on potential options that would be presented at the Vancouver meeting.
Changes to the CPP require the support of seven of the 10 provinces representing two-thirds of the Canadian population, as well as the federal government.
Morneau met with his provincial and territorial finance ministers in December in Ottawa. At that meeting, they agreed to meet again in June to look at options for reform.
Read: CPP to be expanded within the year
Read the full story here.
Editor’s note: The original story reported the meeting was scheduled for June 20-21, but the actual dates have been confirmed as June 19-20.