Retirement Incomes in Canada: Past, Present and Future

David Boisclair, Xavier Dufour-Simard and Pierre-Carl Michaud
Working Paper #19
Retirement and Savings Institute – September 2025

This paper provides an overview of the evolution of retirement incomes over the past twenty years and highlights several policy issues that, according to the authors, deserve greater attention. It also offers a reflection on the future outlook for retirement incomes under the current system. The analysis shows that seniors have, on average, experienced favourable outcomes have experienced favourable outcomes in recent decades and that the system has met its income replacement and poverty reduction objectives. However, ongoing changes reveal emerging vulnerabilities that policymakers should address sooner rather than later.