This is an archive of news stories and research from the National Union of Public and General Employees. Please see our new site - https://nupge.ca - for the most current information.
Level exceeds the previous high reached in the second quarter of 2008.
Ottawa (15 March 2011) – The value of retirement savings of Canadian workers who have workplace pension funds amounted to $997.8 billion at the end of the third quarter, up 6.8% from the previous quarter, according to Statistics Canada quarterly estimates of trusteed pension funds released today. This level exceeds the previous high of $970.8 billion reached in the second quarter of 2008.
The market value of pension fund investments in bonds rose 4.1% to $366.2 billion in the third quarter. The value of Canadian bonds increased 5.8%, while the value of foreign bonds declined 14.2%. The proportion of pension fund assets held in bonds edged down to 36.7%.
The market value of stocks increased 10.0% to $333.0 billion by the end of September, following a second-quarter decline of 5.3%. The proportion of pension fund assets in stocks rose to 33.4%.
Pension fund revenues fell 9.1% in the third quarter. Despite a 21.2% increase in profits from the sale of securities, lower pension contributions and investment income resulted in revenues falling to $22.0 billion at the end of the third quarter.
In addition, expenditures declined 22.1% in the third quarter to $13.4 billion, principally the result of reduced losses on the sale of securities. Net income increased 23.1% to $8.5 billion.
Just over 6.0 million Canadian workers are members of workplace pension plans. Of this group, 4.9 million workers are members of trusteed plans. The remaining 1.1 million members with workplace pension plans are in plans managed principally by insurance company contracts. Data in this release refer only to trusteed plans and their pension funds.
NUPGE
The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) is one of Canada's largest labour organizations with over 340,000 members. Our mission is to improve the lives of working families and to build a stronger Canada by ensuring our common wealth is used for the common good. NUPGE