One-third of Canadians between ages 45 and 64 will likely have retirement incomes that are inadequate for supporting their standard of living. Moreover, Canadians’ savings are at a 30-year low, down from 20 per cent of disposable income in 1980 to about 5 per cent today. Did you know that?

The financial world's lack of certainty the Canadian Governments lack of transparency along with the shrinking number of employers providing pension plans has come a shift away from defined benefit toward defined contribution plans.

A shrinking minority of workers are covered by employer-provided plans. While 46 per cent of the work force participated in 1977, coverage had dropped to 38 per cent by 2008. The problem is especially acute for workers in smaller firms, which rarely offer pension plans.

Defined benefit plans mean that workers know precisely the value of their pension, based on earnings and years of service. Defined contribution plans, by contrast, mean that pension values depend on interest rates and stock market performance. This is often controlled by government policy The year-of-the-bear stock market shows just how precarious this design can be. Thank the liberals for having a secure solid banking system already installed and working.

The ministers were correct to focus on these weaknesses. Too bad their discussions missed another crucial and neglected problem: informal family caregivers whose employment earnings are substantially interrupted because they are caring for a relative with a serious illness or severe disability.

Millions of workers − primarily women − struggle with balancing their caregiving responsibilities and employment demands. With an aging population, there is concern that even more workers will have to reduce their working hours or leave their jobs altogether for a period of time to care for infirm parents. Many working caregivers supplement the assistance provided by formal services, such as home care, because of the short supply and/or cost of these supports.

While these millions of caregivers are crucial to the well-being of Canadian society, together they comprise not even a faint dot on the public radar screen. They contribute billions of dollars of care. Yet they are barely acknowledged, let alone rewarded, for their tireless efforts.

Fortunately, there is a promising remedy. The Canada Pension Plan currently recognizes one form of caregiving responsibility. Its child care drop-out provision allows workers whose CPP contributions were reduced while they were the primary caregivers of children under age 7 to drop that period from the calculation of their pension. They effectively are not penalized down the road for having carried out a crucial social role while in the work force.

The same argument can be made for family caregivers. The current definition of caregiving in the CPP can be stretched to include the care of persons with serious illness or severe disability. Clearly, work would be required around eligibility criteria and other design considerations for this extended provision.

Other countries, including Australia, Britain, Germany, Norway and Finland, stave off income insecurity by providing some form of caregiver pension. Canada is missing from this map. Finance ministers can take an important step to tackle this glaring omission by building on the strong CPP foundation already in place.

Watch this space...