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

Canadian public-sector pension plans typically do not use market yields to calculate their liabilities: if they did, Ottawa’s unfunded pension liability would stand at $227 billion – some $80 billion larger than reported in the Public Accounts. The value of the typical federal employee’s pension entitlement grows at more than 40 percent of pay annually – much faster than the contributions to fund it – putting taxpayers, most of whom face federal tax rules preventing them from funding as rich a retirement for themselves, at risk of having to bail out Ottawa’s pension plans.