Canada Pension Plan
Engagement Summary
The Ministry of Finance invited input from British Columbians on proposed changes to the Canada Pension Plan. These changes were presented after Canada’s Finance ministers reached an agreement-in-principle on a modest, gradual enhancement to the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) at their meeting in June 2016. Once approved, the enhancement would start in 2019 and be phased-in over seven years until 2025.
The proposed CPP enhancement is meant to address the problems of undersaving and low levels of pension coverage. The implementation plan balances the needs of business owners and employees, by slowly phasing in the increase over seven years. Business owners can be assured the impact in each year will be small, but for working Canadians and their families, the changes will have a meaningful effect on their retirement income once they stop working and begin collecting CPP.
Timeframe:
July 15, 2016 – October 4, 2016
Input Received:
2,486 email submissions were received
Input leads to action:
- The Government of British Columbia announced that it has endorsed the agreement-in-principle on
October 4, 2016. - Many of the concerns presented about the impact on employers and employees were addressed in the design of the implementation of the CPP enhancement, with a gradual seven-year phase-in. The impact on low-income earners was addressed by incorporating an enhancement to the federal Working Income Tax Benefit, as well as beneficial changes to the tax treatment of the additional CPP contributions, which will be available to all CPP contributors. Finance Ministers were aware of these concerns prior to the agreement-in-principle.
- Finance Ministers continue to discuss other aspects of the CPP as part of the 2016 -2018 Triennial Review of the CPP. These include reviewing CPP survivor benefits, disability benefits, the death benefit and the low-earnings drop-out provisions.
For more information on the proposed changes and the engagement process please read the final report.