Status of Women Committee on Nov. 3rd, 2009

[Chris Forbes]

Protect them from what?

[Lise Zarac, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard, QC]

You have good plans. Federal government employees can count on a pension plan. Employers have received tax credits, but their employees, for the reasons I just mentioned, were probably not given the increases they were entitled to.

What can we do? When I say “we”, I'm not talking about you; I understand that you are not responsible. What would you recommend in order for these employees to be able to receive their pensions?

[Chris Forbes]

In terms of protecting individuals, there are three pillars that I described earlier. The first is Old Age Security and the Canada Pension Plan, which provide a certain amount of protection to all Canadian men and women.

[Lise Zarac, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard, QC]

I'm talking about private plans, not the plans that fall under your jurisdiction.

What would you recommend to businesses so that employees may keep... I don't know if my question is clear.

[Chris Forbes]

I think that this is connected to the announcement made by the minister on October 27 and referred to by Mr. Rudin. This is a series of measures whose purpose is to improve the security of private pension plans.

[Lise Zarac, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard, QC]

How can we improve that security?

[Jeremy Rudin]

In terms of the pension plans that are federally regulated, the minister proposed...

[Lise Zarac, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard, QC]

That is not what I'm referring to. I'm calling upon your expertise as a good administrator of pension plans. You stated that you work with the private sector and offer your expertise. If they want to protect their pension plans, what are your recommendations? Perhaps my question is not clear enough.

[Jeremy Rudin]

If I have understood you correctly, you are asking us what advice we would give to those who administer pension plans in the private sector.

[Lise Zarac, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard, QC]

Yes, exactly.

[Jeremy Rudin]

I would advise those who are federally regulated to take advantage of the new flexible measures that the minister's proposals will lead to in order to better capitalize their plans. There will be an increase on the limit for taxable contributions and there will be opportunities to use letters of credit—unfortunately I do not know the French term for this.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Wrap it up very quickly, because we're very much over time on this one. We're a minute over.

[Jeremy Rudin]

There will also be new rules in order to strengthen the types of protection referred to in the press release.

That is all the time I have.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you.

Ms. Wong.

[Alice Wong, Conservative, Richmond, BC]

Gentlemen and ladies, thank you very much for coming.

My question is directed to the Department of Finance. As you all understand, the parliamentary secretary, Ted Menzies, conducted a very wide cross-country consultation from March until May. Can you elaborate more on that study, especially on who was consulted during these consultations and how wide the scope of the consultations was?

[Jeremy Rudin]

Yes, I'd be glad to.

We began with a discussion paper that was released in January, called “Strengthening the Legislative and Regulatory Framework for Private Pension Plans”. We had an online consultation, and we received a great many submissions to that consultation. Those for which we had permission to post we've posted online, so there's quite a lot of information there.

Then Mr. Menzies went across the country, and there were a number of stops--most, but I don't think all, provinces. He met broadly with stakeholders, some of whom had responded to the online consultation and some of whom had not. Some of these meetings involved a good discussion amongst the participants, and a number of provincial finance ministers commented on their satisfaction with the process when the finance ministers met most recently here in Ottawa.

As an outcome of that process, the proposals that the minister announced in October were developed.

[Alice Wong, Conservative, Richmond, BC]

Thank you.

Going back to another thing you mentioned earlier, that the federal, provincial, and territorial finance ministers created a working research group regarding pensions, is that report to be presented in December?

[Chris Forbes]

Yes, the research working group will report its findings back to the finance ministers in December.

[Alice Wong, Conservative, Richmond, BC]

Could you explain further the purpose of this working group and what it is studying about pensions? You did mention it earlier, but not in great detail.

[Chris Forbes]

In fact it's a bit broader than pensions. It's a research working group on retirement income adequacy. They're looking at a broad range of issues. The goal of this is research work, so it's to come up with a common base of understanding for ministers of finance, and it will be shared with them in December.

It's touching, as the name of the group would suggest, on a lot of the issues you've been discussing about the adequacy of the current saving rates of Canadians and whether people are saving enough for retirement. It's looking at issues like the cost of mutual fund investments, active versus passive investments, and a wide range of things.

They'll present a synthesized version of those papers to the ministers in December.

[Alice Wong, Conservative, Richmond, BC]

Could you speculate on how this working group's decisions will affect the CPP in Canada?

[Chris Forbes]

Again to go back, it's to get a common base of research on the understanding about the facts of retirement income. So it's not actually about specific policy proposals or actions. It's really about providing the best research possible for the ministers to look at and get a good understanding, and hopefully a common understanding, of the system as it stands today and going forward.

[Alice Wong, Conservative, Richmond, BC]

How much time do I have, please?

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You have one and a half minutes.

[Alice Wong, Conservative, Richmond, BC]

Let's go back to some kind of history. Could you also explain to the committee and expand on the actions the government has taken since 2006 with respect to pensions? It seems to be a large question.