In Québec, most workers who are covered by a supplemental pension plan work at large firms. Only a few small businesses, which account for about half of all Québec workers, offer such protection to their employees. Over 70% of them have no retirement savings instrument for their employees. 

This is why, in its Strategic Plan 2006-2011, the Régie des rentes du Québec set an objective for 2007 to determine which small businesses are best suited to set up a retirement savings instrument for their employees as well as the characteristics of those businesses.

To this end, the Régie surveyed small business owners¹ in partnership with Question Retraite and the Industrial Alliance Insurance and Financial Services Chair at Université Laval. The result was a two-pronged study that focused on small businesses that do not offer a pension plan, including a group registered retirement savings plan (RRSP), and small businesses that do offer an employee pension plan.

Among other things, this consultation helped us document and understand the reasons why a pension plan may not be offered. It also helped us gauge the level of understanding of small business owners and thereby develop a focused communication strategy to better inform them.

This issue of Retirement experts features 3 articles on the study's findings, which discuss a pension plan's advantages for small businesses, roadblocks to setting up a pension plan, and the characteristics of small businesses best suited to set up a pension plan.

Enjoy!

Martine Bourque
Editor-in-Chief

1. For the study, we defined a small business as an organization with fewer than 300 employees, including municipalities and municipal agencies as well as non-profit organizations (NPOs).