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Pension Centre of Excellence

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The Pension Centre of Excellence (PCE) at the National Institute on Ageing is a non-partisan, research-informed and action-oriented platform dedicated to improving the retirement financial security of Canadians. In 2024, a significant weakness was identified in Canada’s retirement landscape: a lack of national leadership and evidence-based collaboration that is preventing progress on improving the retirement financial security of Canadians.

The PCE brings together diverse stakeholders and thought leaders to address the challenges and opportunities facing Canada’s retirement income system. By fostering collaboration and leveraging evidence-based research, the PCE aims to generate innovative solutions and drive impactful change.

The PCE is dedicated to fulfilling the NIA’s mandate to improve the lives of older adults and the systems that support them by conducting best-in-class research, convening stakeholders, sharing information, shifting attitudes and uniting our expertise and talent to advance policy solutions and practice innovations. By fostering dialogue and collaboration among typically disconnected worlds, the PCE will create an ongoing pipeline of evidence-based solutions and insights that will improve policies and practices in Canada.

The PCE maintains a strictly non-partisan approach, ensuring its research remains neutral, unbiased and independent of political ideologies or policy agendas. By focusing on factual analysis rather than advocacy, the PCE seeks to equip policymakers, industry leaders, thought leaders, older adults and the public with objective information to support informed decision-making. Its role is to provide clarity on complex pension issues rather than advocate for specific legislative or regulatory changes. While the NIA and other stakeholders may use PCE research to shape policy recommendations, the Centre itself does not advocate for particular reforms.

PCE Members Belong to the Following Groups:

Elected Representatives
Academic and Research Organizations
Federal and Provincial Governments
Not-For-Profit Organizations
Other National and International Experts and Thought Leaders
Financial Institutions
Professional Service Providers
Pension Plans and Sponsors

Q&A

The Pension Centre of Excellence (PCE) at the National Institute on Ageing (NIA) is a non-partisan, research-informed and action-oriented platform dedicated to improving the retirement financial security of Canadians.

Our member organizations are the lifeblood of the PCE. This is a grassroots achievement—it comes from a sense of shared purpose and only exists because of their leadership and commitment.

We see the PCE becoming Canada’s central platform for retirement income security research and dialogue. Over the next decade, our goals are to deepen our membership, strengthen our research capacity and continue building bridges across academia, industry, government and society in general—both within Canada and internationally.

The PCE elevates the national dialogue by ensuring it is evidence-based, inclusive and non-partisan. We’re not here to advocate for a specific policy outcome, but rather to provide the research and clarity needed for more informed decision-making.