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Canada’s Flaherty pushing for pooled pensions

17 December 2010 04:36 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty wants to create a new type of pension plan that would enable more workers to save for retirement, APA reports quoting news.yahoo.com website.
Flaherty hopes to at least set the groundwork on a pension deal at a meeting on Monday with his provincial counterparts in Kananaskis, Alberta.
In a letter to provincial finance ministers, released on Thursday, Flaherty said he hoped to make progress toward the introduction of "pooled registered pension plans", or PRPPs.
"With respect to retirement income, I hope we will be able to agree on a framework for pooled registered pension plans," he wrote.
The defined contribution plans would be administered by a third party, likely a financial institution, and would allow small businesses that otherwise could not afford their own plan to offer a retirement savings vehicle to their employees.
Self-employed workers would also have easier access to a private pension plan under the proposal.
The plan would require a high level of provincial and federal regulatory harmonization in order to work, Flaherty said.