Ask the Expert: Jack Mintz Jack Mintz – Palmer Chair in Public Policy, School of Public Policy, University of Calgary Mintz recently chaired the Alberta Financial & Investment Policy Advisory Committee, reporting to the Alberta Minister of Finance, and was the research director for the Federal-Provincial-Territorial Ministers’ Working Group on Retirement Income Research. In January […]
Closing the pension gap May 25, 2010 | Peter Drake In early May, I had the privilege of being a panelist at a conference held in Toronto by the Institute for Research on Public Policy. The conference was entitled ‘Avenues for Reforming the Canadian Retirement Income System’. These days, that’s a hot topic in the […]
Hands on May 01, 2010 | Brooke Smith Most consultants and money managers would say that the best default fund for a defined contribution (DC) pension plan is not to have one. However, this is far from reality. “Plan sponsors find that, despite trying to do their best in terms of education and increasing employee […]
The former governor of the Bank of Canada warns that Canadians need a reality check when it comes to saving for retirement. In a report for the C.D. Howe Institute, The Piggy Bank Index: Matching Canadians’ Saving Rates to Their Retirement Dreams David Dodge—along with Alexandre Laurin and Colin Busby—challenge the laissez-faire attitude often displayed […]
The global economic recovery is well underway, but there remain significant threats to growth, according to economists at TD Financial Group. The primary drivers of the recovery have been resurgent growth in emerging markets and stimulative policy measures in more developed countries. “Initially, central banks and governments responded to the financial crisis like a trauma […]
Other Brieflies this week:| MON | TUE | WED | THU | FRI | The Olympic spirit appears to be thriving among some Canadian employers, which plan to give staff the option of watching events during business hours. A survey of 123 organizations across the country by Hewitt Associates finds that 25% of Canadian employers […]
Ottawa is playing host to Canada’s 18 federal unions for Tuesday and Wednesday as they draw out a battle plan for the expected showdown over public sector pensions. Recent reports about a belt-tightening 2010 budget, as well as comments by Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty during the December Ministers meeting in Whitehorse, have pushed the […]
Other Brieflies this week:| MON | TUE | WED | THU | FRI | A U.K.-based coalition of institutional and private investors is urging Royal Dutch Shell to provide transparency regarding any risks associated with its Alberta oil sands projects. More than 140 fund managers, mutual funds, pension funds and individual investors have co-filed a […]
Canada’s banking sector recently emerged from the global economic crisis as a model of stability and prudence, but the same cannot be said of the country’s pension system. The complicated patchwork of legislation, jurisdiction, and regionalism which defines Canada’s retirement regime is antiquated and in dire need of reform. In conjunction with the C.D. Howe […]
National single-employer pension plans are at a very fragile juncture, and the current patchwork of pension legislation discourages organizations from providing pension coverage in multiple jurisdictions. However, a recent report has tabled several possible solutions to the legislative snarl. According to the C.D. Howe Institute’s The Pension Tangle: Achieving Greater Uniformity of Pension Legislation and […]