Pension Politics and Challenges: Retirement Policy Implications

Pensions in Canada have become political, with challenges and changes occurring, and likely to occur, on several fronts, including the dismantling of universality in Old Age Security, possible alterations in eligibility for Spouse's Allowance, the allocation of pension credits upon marital dissolution, issues of vesting and portability, coverage, rights of employers/employees with respect to pension funds, among others. In addition, there have been challenges to mandatory retirement, changes in years spent in retirement, and in retirement negotiations at the individual level. Retirement and the retirement process are influenced by the social and political context of pension policy and practice, yet the implications of pension politics and challenges for retirement policy in Canada have not been fully explored and many new issues have lately arisen. This paper describes current pension policies, and changes to them, and explores their impacts for retirement, suggesting areas to which future research could be directed.