Overall pension fund assets in Canada increased by 27.4% to $1.5 trillion in 2014 from $1.2 trillion in 2012, according to new data published by Statistics Canada (StatsCan) on Monday.
Public pension sector funds grew by 28.1% over the two-year period to $1.1 trillion in assets while private sector pension fund assets increased by 25.8% over the same period, to $480 billion, the StatsCan report notes.
Specifically, investment income grew by 21.6% over the two-year period, StatsCan says, as profits on the sale of securities almost doubled to $60.1 billion in 2014 from $30.1 billion in 2012. Total pension fund revenue reached $170.4 billion in 2014, up by 32.3% from 2012, whereas contributions from both employers and employees decreased by 1.5%.
Pension fund expenditures rose by 14.5% to $70.5 billion in 2014, StatsCan reports, noting that this was driven by a 13.1% increase in pension benefit payments. Furthermore, the report says that administration costs grew by 42.8% to $6 billion over the period.
The number of pension funds in Canada totalled 8,876 in 2014, which is more or less unchanged from 2012, StatsCan says. These funds cover 5.4 million employees in total, including 3.1 million public sector workers and 2.3 million private sector workers.