Evaluation of the Québec System of Financial Security at Retirement in Relation to that of other Industrialized Countries (2004)
This report presents a study that compares Québec's retirement system with systems in France, the United States, Japan, Italy, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany and Sweden. Several aspects are compared, including:
- coverage provided by publics plans
- level of pensions
- salary covered
- retirement age
- indexation of pensions after retirement
- adequacy of senior citizens' incomes
- poverty among senior citizens
- income inequality
- pension plan costs and funding.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) considers Canada and by extension, Québec, to be the country with the least difficulty seeing to retirees' economic well-being and protecting the vulnerable.
Strengths and weaknesses in the Québec System
Strengths |
Weaknesses |
Risk diversification: Québec has a system that encompasses several components (public and private, compulsory and optional, funded and pay-as-you-go) | A significant part of retirement income comes from public sources through the Old Age Security pension financed by the federal government. Clear orientations do not exist regarding the future of the program. |
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Public expenditures for pensions are not very high in Québec, in comparison to other countries. | A large number of workers are not covered by supplemental pension plans. |
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The system offers a certain flexibility to both individuals and businesses. | Measures allowing phased retirement are not very effective and recourse to them is not widespread. |
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The public plan (QPP) has both a funding mechanism and mechanisms for measuring the plan's financial health. | The income obtained through RRSPs depends on a person's savings habits. |
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A law provides the framework for supplemental pension plans ("pension funds"). | Survivors' benefits are not well adapted to the many family models that exist in Québec. |
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The Québec system benefits from integrated and coherent taxation with regard to public plans, supplemental pension plans and RRSPs. | |
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