More than nine million Canadians have no workplace retirement plan — not because they chose to opt out, but because they weren’t offered one designed for how they actually work and live.

According to a 2026 report by the C.D. Howe Institute, this absence is most pronounced in the private sector, where fewer than a fifth of small- and mid-sized employers sponsor a retirement program and only about 30 to 40 percent of private sector workers belong to any pension plan at all.

The gap between participation and retirement readiness is increasingly shaping how pension funds approach equity and inclusivity. Indeed, while considerations around diversity, equity and inclusion are part of the conversation among pension funds, they still aren’t consistently embedded in plan design, communications, governance and investment strategy, says Mark Mervyn, a partner at Aon.

Read: Pension Awareness Day 2026: FSRA highlighting plan member education, retirement readiness

The inconsistency becomes more pronounced during periods of economic uncertainty, he adds, when funding pressures and short-term performance targets can slow structural reform and reinforce a focus on immediate returns over longer-term systemic change.

“Anything that increases access is good, but then there’s the quality of that retirement package and making sure we have cost-efficient solutions that actually close the gap,” says Sebastien Betermier, associate professor of finance at McGill University’s Desautels School of Management and executive director of the International Centre for Pension Management.

At the governance level, the ICPM pays pension contributions in full for staff throughout their parental leave, with no gap in accrual and no catch-up contributions required upon their return. That continuity reduces long-term gaps, says Betermier, with governance-level DEI extending beyond board composition or investment screening to whether internal policies reflect the same values expected of the plans the ICPM oversees.

“The more continuous we can make that experience, the fewer the gaps.”

Where the gaps actually live

Many defined benefit pension plans were built around a model that assumed a full-time, uninterrupted career with a single employer and a traditional two-partner household, a structure that no longer reflects how most Canadians work or live.

In a plan sponsor client review spanning four years, Mervyn identified a disparity in how different types of leaves were treated: parental, compassionate care and caregiving leaves were only covered if members continued to contribute while unpaid or made up contributions later. Roughly half of employees did, while the other........

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