Quebec already has nearly 2 million retirees on its territory, double the number 20 years ago.
And according to the most recent forecasts from Retraite Québec, the group of Quebecers of retirement age will increase by another million over the next ten years, to approach 2.4 million people.
For the province, struggling with one of the fastest aging populations on the planet (along with Japan), this comes as no surprise. Demographers and actuaries have been sounding the alarm for decades. However, the situation continues to cause concern. In particular, with regard to the weight that, before long, so many beneficiaries will constitute on the shoulders of an ever-decreasing number of contributing workers.
A fear that serves the message, hammered home for years, that each citizen should see to building up a supplementary retirement fund for their old age.
The bare minimum
It must be constantly reminded, insists François L’Italien, coordinator of the Observatory of Retirement, associated with the Institute for Contemporary Economic Research (IREC), “our public pension system was designed to meet the strict needs of basis of a retired person.
At age 65, we are talking regarding $685.50 per month ($7,707 per year) from the federal Old Age Security (OAS) program, to which is added a maximum of $1,253.59 per month ($15,043 per year) of the Quebec Pension Plan (QPP).
For a Quebecer with an average income, the OAS and the QPP would replace 35% to 40% of his pre-retirement income. This is roughly half of what a worker who wishes to maintain his standard of living in retirement (70% of work income) will require.
To these government benefits, which constitute the public pension plan for Quebecers, can be added – for 39% of workers – benefits from an employer-sponsored pension plan (public or private), as well as income from savings and investments accumulated by each worker.
According to the Retirement Observatory, the average income of people aged 65 and over in Quebec is $40,331 per year, which is 12% less than the Canadian average and 20% less than the Ontario average.
