|
TORONTO (CP) - Workers and investors stand to suffer as six out of 10
defined-benefit pension plans in Canada lack sufficient assets to pay the
pensions they have promised, a study warns.
The Certified General Accountants Association of Canada estimated
Wednesday that $160 billion will be required to cover the shortfall. The
59 per cent of plans that were in deficit as of the end of 2003
represented an improvement from 67 per cent a year earlier, thanks to a
strong - and likely unsustainable - 14 per cent average investment return
last year, the CGA association's study says.
But there still is a looming social and economic crisis for Canada's
defined-benefits pension plan holders and plan sponsors if the situation
is not addressed, the group stated.
It warns that pensioners may have their benefits sharply reduced, and
that inadequately funded pension plans may go bankrupt. Shortfalls will
also negatively affect corporate financial results and share prices.
Two of Canada's best-known companies, insolvent carrier Air Canada and
money-losing steel producer Stelco Inc., faced big pension shortfalls
that led to disputes with workers and delayed the companies' attempts to
restructure under bankruptcy protection.
While Air Canada struck a deal with federal pension regulators and its
unions to put more cash into the plan to make up the deficit over 10
years, Stelco and its workers have not yet dealt with the issue as the
company seeks cost cuts to restructure.
Stelco says its high pension costs in Canada are one reason the
company can't compete with U.S. mills, which have seen their pension
costs drop after bankruptcy restructurings in the United States.
In its report Wednesday, the accountants association said financial-market
gains alone will not correct the situation, considering that the likely
average long-term return for a balanced pension fund is about 6.5 per
cent.
The study of 847 pension plans, about one-third of the defined-benefit
plans in the country, estimates Canadian companies with defined-benefit
plans must make special payments totalling 10 per cent of their payrolls
for five years to eliminate current deficits on a solvency basis.
However, it says regulators and the courts discourage employers from
doing more than the bare legal minimum to fund pension plans.
This is largely because any surpluses stand to be confiscated in order
to benefit workers in a bankruptcy or other major corporate change.
The ongoing debate around surplus ownership creates disincentive for
plan sponsors in fear that surpluses will be apportioned to members while
deficits are generally viewed as the sponsor's responsibility to correct,
the study says.
On a hopeful note, it adds that a combination of special payments and reasonable
investment returns coupled with a modest increase in the level of
interest rates could solve the situation for most pension plans.
But it warns that accounting techniques can distort a pension fund's
performance by keeping losses off the balance sheet in the short term.
Although pension obligations can be a major liability equivalent to
half of the stock-market value of some companies, the report notes, it is
not an easy task for a normal investor to make any sense of the reported
values.
It recommends a new look at pension-related accounting standards.
The Canadian pension landscape is changing, stated Anthony Ariganello,
president of CGA-Canada.
Where previously, many large and well established employers provided
generous pension plans and employees fully expected to receive their
benefits as a matter of course, we are now faced with a fluid and
shifting environment.
The survey found that despite the stock-market losses of 2001 and
2002, few plan sponsors have changed their asset mix - typically 56 per
cent equities, 37 per cent bonds, two per cent real estate and five per
cent other investments.
The recent bear market is a wake-up call for the pension system, it
says.
Pension plans with assets representing more than four times payroll
are now common. When these plans lose five per cent return in a year,
this represents a loss of 20 per cent of the employers' payroll which
will need to be made up at some point.
The study also calls for workers to get smarter about their retirement
provisions, noting the desirability to empower pension plan members to
attain increased understanding of their pension arrangements; intrinsic
risks, entitlements and expectations; and the actions which they might
pursue in planning for retirement.
|