As the federal government’s plan to legalize recreational marijuana next year moves ahead, there are still many challenges, including how pricing and taxation of the drug will work. In letters to the governments of Alberta, New Brunswick and Ontario, the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association has asked those provinces to consider the potential affect on […]
Jim Keohane couldn’t help but laugh when he recently got his hands on a copy of the 1975 annual report for the Ontario Hospital Association’s pension plan. The plan, an ancestor of the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan that Keohane now leads, dated back to 1960 and had accumulated total assets of about $300 million […]
A key aspect to managing the increasing compensation costs of federal government employees is a transition away from defined benefit pension models, according to a new report by the C.D. Howe Institute. Target-benefit plans would provide more stable contribution rates by allowing more benefit flexibility, says the report, while another option would be jointly-sponsored pension plans, in […]
Canada should consider raising the age of eligibility for public pension benefits in order to persuade more seniors to keep working, argues a new report by the C.D. Howe Institute. It notes with increased life expectancy and the working-age population remaining relatively stable, the growing demand for financial support in retirement could strain social security […]
Younger Canadians are at risk of shouldering any future deficit in the expanded Canada Pension Plan if it experiences shortfalls in investment returns, according to a new report by the C.D. Howe Institute. The institute’s report references calculations by Canada’s chief actuary, published in October 2016, that predicted the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board must earn an […]
Ottawa should encourage widespread investment in existing and new infrastructure by institutional investors, such as pension plans and insurers, according to a new report by the C.D. Howe Institute. “Canadian governments are on the verge of the largest infrastructure spending increases in decades, to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars,” said the report’s […]
It’s time to bring innovation to federal employee pension plans, Keith Ambachtsheer and Jim Leech wrote in an open letter to Finance Minister Bill Morneau last week. As it stands, these defined benefit plans place the full risk on taxpayers and could become “the Titantics of the 21st century,” note Ambachtsheer, director emeritus of the International Centre […]
With pensions a growing concern for Canadians’ livelihoods, the public has a valid interest in knowing how they’re performing. And when it comes to public pension plans, they represent both a cost to taxpayers as well as a benefit many people will collect from at some point in their lives. But how far should public […]
When considering claims that Canadians lack adequate savings for retirement, it’s crucial to ask whether “fourth-pillar” assets have been fully considered in reaching this conclusion, argues a new report by the C.D. Howe Institute. These fourth-pillar assets – which include real estate, publicly traded securities, privately owned business investments, insurance products and tax-free savings account […]
The expanded Canadian Pension Plan will bring only a slightly higher rate of return for retirees — 2.5 per cent in the expanded plan compared to 2.1 per cent in the current plan, according to a new report by the Fraser Institute. The report assumes employees will retire at the age of 65 and looked […]