The Piggy Bank Index: Matching Canadians’ Savings Rates to Their Retirement Dreams

Abstract

As Canada’s babyboom generation approaches retirement age, public concern about the adequacy of retirement income is mounting, note the authors. Most of the public debate has been about potential reform of the tax and fiduciary rules governing corporate pension plans, the possibility of expanding contributory public pension plans such as the CPP/QPP, about how much tax-deferred saving the Income Tax Act should allow, and for how long. To date, say the authors, there has been little focus on the fraction of annual earnings that must be saved by Canadians – either through employer plans, private saving, or expanded contributions to a public plan – to provide adequate and reasonably assured retirement incomes.