Reflections on the Past, Present, and Future of Employer-Sponsored Pension Plans in Canada

More than bad luck lies behind the plight of single-employer defined-benefit pension plans in Canada. Deals that purported to relieve employees of risk, while offering sponsors a powerful workforce-management tool and low current compensation costs, were attractive to the contracting parties—but key economic uncertainties and agency problems mean that these plans were not as good for participants and taxpayers. Pension-plans designers and policy-makers should foster new arrangements that will be more robust in the face of unexpected developments. Importantly, sponsors of plans in financial trouble should redirect their search for solutions from asset management to the human resource department.