In the coming months, Finance Canada will be embarking on public consultations concerning Canada’s retirement income system. The outcome of this debate couldn’t be more important.

The federal government stresses that the current system is on solid footing, and that it is doing a good job of facilitating comfortable retirements for most seniors. Some would dispute these conclusions. But even if you accept them at face value, there are good reasons to expect these conditions to change in the years ahead.

First, the population is aging, and lifespans are increasing. This means the ratio of workers to retirees will shift. The likely result will be more claims on the public purse. Slower labour force growth also implies lower potential economic growth — a challenge that is likely to be compounded by the prospect of household deleveraging in the years ahead. And government balance sheets have also been gutted by the economic crisis, meaning that their finances are already in rougher shape than they might otherwise have been.

Second, the composition of retirement savings is changing as pension coverage shrinks, with employer-sponsored plans disappearing or converting from defined-benefit plans to defined-contribution — trends that shunt the burden of saving from firms to individuals. There is plenty of evidence that, left to their own devices, individuals don’t save enough for retirement. And existing savings have also been thumped by the financial crisis.

All of which suggests that if the retirement savings system isn’t broken now, it may well be in the future. Preventing such a breakdown is both simple and complex. Essentially, people need to save more for retirement and should expect to work longer.

But achieving this is not straightforward. It’s not simply a matter of casting off RRSP contribution limits. Although the government should consider making private savings more flexible and attractive, it also needs to consider new ways to compel savings, either by expanding the Canada Pension Plan or introducing a new voluntary public plan that makes saving automatic but not mandatory. The feds also need to shore up the foundation of the public system, old-age security and the guaranteed income supplement.

A one-size solution won’t do, but a solution is essential.