What we can learn from the Australian experience.
As Canada contemplates whether or not to expand its public pension system, it can learn from the experience of Australia, which has managed to increase pension coverage while reducing public pension spending.
Expanding the Canada Pension Plan will help address the continuing decline of workplace pensions, said the national president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees.
The debate about whether to increase the size of the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) benefits through higher contributions is heating up as the country awaits an important meeting of the finance ministers where the issue will be on the agenda. While some say an expanded CPP will provide retirement security for all Canadians, others argue that it will end up subsidizing people who don’t need help.
A majority of Canadians are in favour of expanding the Canada Pension Plan, according to a poll.
If government workers were compensated at private sector norms, Canadian families would have an extra $3,110 per year to put toward their own retirement, according to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.
I am now going to publicly flip-flop and add my voice to calls for CPP expansion, which I now believe to be an inevitable development.
Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne warns that unless retirement incomes are improved, Canada will suffer the consequences.
In its fall economic statement, the Government of Ontario said it would take steps to make the province's retirement income system better.
The Canada Pension Plan fund ended the second quarter of fiscal year 2014 with net assets of $192.8 billion, compared with $188.9 billion at the end of the previous quarter.