An overwhelming 80% of respondents agree that governments should reduce the public sector’s defined benefits pension plans as they are far more generous than are private sectors plans, and unfairly require the private sector taxpayers to pay for public sector pensions that are more generous than their own.

A large majority also favour the federal government’s creation of the Canada Supplementary Pension Plan to top up OAS and CPP to 60% income replacement, as proposed by the C.D. Howe Institute.

There is weak support (mean score of 4.4 out of 7) for passing Bill C-501, a bill that would give priority to unfunded benefit pension plan liabilities over creditors and bondholders in the case of an employer’s bankruptcy.

These are the key findings from this past week’s Internet survey of CEOs and business leaders on the COMPAS panel. The weekly business survey is undertaken for Canadian Business magazine under sponsorship of BDO Dunwoody LLP.

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