The reform of the Canada Pension Plan will come into force on January 1, 2019, and the country’s businesses are already worried… But not to the point of starting to take measures.
Businesses are not ready
Is it because 2019 seems to be a long way off or because they don’t know where to begin? Although Canadian employers are uneasy about the reform of the pension plan, very few have already begun or have the intention to address the issue in the coming months. Aon Hewitt, supplier of risk management, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, carried out a survey of nearly 250 Canadian organizations and found that only 13% of employers have begun to plan and 35% expect to before October 2017. And 46% have no idea when they will.
What worries them
The survey reports on organizations’ concerns. First of all, 65% of people interviewed are concerned about the increased costs and don’t know how they will manage them. Those who do know expect to absorb them (27%), modify their existing retirement plans (8%), support changes to other social benefit plans (6%), or review their medical care plans (3%). Secondly, there is the administrative complexity, which concerns 36% of the survey participants, followed by potential negative reactions of employees (22%). Canadian employers are going to have challenges to overcome in the next two years to be able to incorporate this enhanced pension plan into their pay system.