The victory of the Liberal Party in the Canadian federal election on Monday could result in the bolstering of the C$268.8 billion ($208 billion) Canada Pension Plan, Ottawa.
Kathleen Wynne, premier of Ontario, who has led efforts in the formation of Ontario's supplemental pension fund set to begin in January 2017, said in a news conference she looks forward to working with Justin Trudeau, leader of the Liberal Party, who emphasized in his campaign his support of further boosting the nationwide pension fund.
“Remember that Justin Trudeau cannot alone enhance the Canada Pension Plan. He has to work with all of the provinces. So we are going to continue to work in Ontario on implementing the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan,” Ms. Wynne said, according to a transcript of the news conference.
“We have identified that two-thirds of people in this province don't have a workplace pension plan … and so their prospects for retirement are inadequate. So if we can, working with the federal government and the federal government working with provinces across the country, come up with an enhancement to the Canada Pension Plan that actually resolves those issues in terms of people having a plan and having an adequate plan, then I am absolutely thrilled to be able to work on that with the prime minister,” Ms. Wynne added.
Ron Olsen, a Toronto-based senior vice president and consulting actuary at The Segal Group, said based on Mr. Trudeau's statements during the campaign, he clearly intends to expand the benefits of the Canada Pension Plan.
Among potential changes, “my expectations is we will likely see a higher earnings cap,” Mr. Olsen said. The current maximum pensionable salary is C$53,600 annually.
Mr. Trudeau “didn't talk about it specifically in the campaign, but it's certainly our experience in the past in making presentations in Ottawa to federal legislators, that there is interest in the Liberal Party in some sort of a national pension safety net for members of the defined benefit plan,” Mr. Olsen added, citing the U.S. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. as an example of such a safety net.
