-A A +A
January 1, 1996

Canada’s government-run income pension system, made up of the Canada and Quebec Pension Plans (CPP/QPP), is run on a pay as you go basis. With only minimal prefunding in the CPP account, the CPP is a Ponzi scheme in which the benefits of each cohort of participants are paid from subsequent cohorts’ contributions. Pay-as-you-go plans have serious economic and political flaws. This study makes three recommendations on how policymakers can meet these challenges.

William Robson

Bill Robson took office as CEO of the C.D. Howe Institute in July 2006, after serving as the Institute’s Senior Vice President since 2003 and Director of Research from 2000 to 2003. He has written more than 270 monographs, articles, chapters and books on such subjects as government budgets, pensions, healthcare financing, inflation and currency issues.