On October 29, 2010, the Ontario government released a paper, "Securing our Retirement Future: Consulting with Ontarians on Canada's Retirement Income System", for public discussion, and reiterated its intention to amend the Pension Benefits Act in respect of employment-based defined benefit plans, among other matters.

The paper provides an overview of the current retirement system and outlines five “key challenges”, including a lack of sufficient, stable retirement income coverage from employment pensions and RRSPs.

The two areas of potential reform identified for public discussion are:

1. the potential expansion and enhancement of Canada Pension Plan (“CPP”) coverage; and
2. pension innovation through the creation of new types of pension or retirement savings plan arrangements, changing the treatment of group RRSPs, and establishing single-employer target benefit plans.

Interested parties and stakeholders are invited to provide feedback on both the potential expansion of CPP and the possible pension innovation before November 29, 2010, at Pension.Feedback@ontario.ca.

If you have any questions, concerns or would like assistance in providing comments on the discussion paper, please contact any member of our Pension & Benefits Group.