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Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Employer pension plans (trusteed pension funds)

Second quarter 2005

The value of the retirement savings of millions of Canadian workers with trusteed pension plans increased in the second quarter of 2005 — the ninth consecutive quarterly gain.

Pension fund managers increased the value of fund assets to $729.2 billion, up 2.3% over the previous three months.

The value of funds has been rising since it hit a low of $532.4 billion in the first quarter of 2003.

Fund revenues amounted to $22.2 billion and expenditures $9.1 billion, for a net cash flow of $12.1 billion during the second quarter of 2005. Quarterly cash flows have been positive for two full years. In the first quarter of 2003, the funds had a negative cash flow of $2.6 billion due to losses on the sale of assets.

Contributions were high at $7.1 billion, of which $5.4 billion were made by employers. Employer contributions have been on the rise since 2001. Up to that time many employers had been taking a contribution holiday because their pension fund investments were doing very well.

Benefits paid out in the first quarter amounted to just under $7.0 billion.

About 4.6 million Canadian workers are members of trusteed plans. Of these, 2.5 million are public sector workers in municipal, provincial, and federal governments and enterprises, crown corporations, government boards, commissions and agencies, and public educational and health institutions. Private sector workers make up the remaining 2.1 million.

A further one million workers have employer pension plans funded by government consolidated revenue funds, or by insurance company contracts. (Data in this release refer only to the trusteed plans, and all values are in current dollars).

Available on CANSIM: tables 280-0002 to 280-0004.

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 2607.

For more information about the current survey results and related products and services, or to enquire about the concepts, methods, or data quality of this release, contact Client Services (613-951-7355 or 1-888-297-7355; fax: 613-951-3012; income@statcan.gc.ca), Income Statistics Division.



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Date Modified: 2005-12-21 Important Notices