Fixing the U.S. retirement system – does Canada have the answers?

In recent years, Canada has significantly expanded and improved its retirement income and pension system. The Canada Pension Plan (CPP), which provides Canadians with income security in the case of retirement or disability, has been expanded, and its defined benefit plans for government employees has managed to avoid many of the funding problems plaguing comparable U.S. plans. The country is also making advances in expanding coverage to moderate-and-lower income Canadians. But there’s still work to be done, particularly in improving efforts to target policies to low-to-moderate income workers.

How was Canada able to achieve this expansion, and is there anything in the Canadian experience that Americans can use to advance retirement system reforms in the United States? On November 2, the Retirement Security Project at Brookings hosted an event with senior Canadian officials and American experts to discuss the Canadian system and its relevance to American policy debates.