Ottawa’s Pension Gap: The Growing and Under-reported Cost of Federal Employee Pensions

Summary:
Page Title:Ottawa’s Pension Gap: The Growing and Under-reported Cost of Federal Employee Pensions – C.D. Howe Institute
Article Title:Ottawa’s Pension Gap: The Growing and Under-reported Cost of Federal Employee Pensions
URL:https://cdhowe.org/publication/ottawas-pension-gap-growing-and-under-reported-cost-federal-employee-pensions/
Published Date:December 13, 2011
Accessed Date:February 17, 2025

The federal government’s unfunded  liabilities for its employee pension plans  total $227 billion, far more than reported, according to a report released today by the C.D. Howe Institute. In “Ottawa’s Pension Gap: The Growing and Under-reported Cost of Federal Employee Pensions,” authors Alexandre Laurin and William Robson find that, using fair-value accounting like private-sector plans which value assets and liabilities using current market prices and interest rates, Ottawa’s unfunded employee pension obligations are $80 billion more than reported in the Public Accounts.

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