Origins of FLIPP

Flaherty’s proposed new pension vehicle bears a remarkably close resemblance to that put forward by Frank Swedlove of the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association to the IRPP pensions conference. (I guess he wins the prize for most influential presentation. I put the case for CPP expansion, while Bill Robson argued for not doing very much at all.)

I gather there have been not very successful experiments with voluntary multi employer pension plans at the provincial level, and that a national plan was once proposed by Monique Begin but went nowhere.

Here is the CLC release on the Finance Ministers statement from Kananaskis. As it notes, there is strong provincial support for CPP expansion (six provinces have formally signed a letter, and Newfoundland and Labrador are probably on board), and work by officials will continue.