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While public debate has mainly focused on the “gold-plated” defined benefits of many public-service pension plans, the real problem lies in a flawed approach to managing compensation costs, according to respected pension expert Malcolm Hamilton.  In, “Evaluating Public-Sector Pensions: How Much Do They Really Cost?” Hamilton says the problem is government sponsors who typically underestimate…

Federal public servants have pension guarantees in their defined-benefit pension plans that are mispriced, causing Ottawa to seriously underestimate the cost of the pension plans and the total compensation of its employees, according to a report released today by the C.D. Howe Institute.  In “Evaluating Public-Sector Pensions: Are Federal Public Servants Overpaid?” respected pension expert…

Published in the Financial Post on September 30, 2014 By Åke Blomqvist and Colin Busby Åke Blomqvist is an adjunct professor at Carleton University and health policy scholar at the C.D. Howe Institute. Colin Busby is a senior policy analyst at the Institute. Cash-strapped provincial governments face a monumental challenge in the years ahead: Steeply increasing long-term care (LTC) costs,…

Published in the Financial Post on October 27, 2014 By Randy Bauslaugh Randy Bauslaugh is Partner, McCarthy Tetrault, and author of “Target Benefit plans: Improving Access for Federally Regulated Employees,” published by the C.D. Howe Institute. The federal focus on protecting plan members, without regard to employers, scares federal employers. Federal consultations have just…

Published in the Globe & Mail on February 12, 2014 By Alexandre Laurin An understated highlight of the federal budget was that, for the first time in five years, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has a healthy baseline. His cumulative $45-billion surplus projected over the next five fiscal years would be the envy of most past federal finance ministers, not to mention Mr. Flaherty’s provincial…

Published in the Financial Post on April 22, 2014 By Finn Poschmann Minor reforms from the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions don’t eliminate the need for major changes The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions last week released its long awaited draft guidelines, known as B-21, on prudent behaviour for federally regulated mortgage insurers.…