PASSAGEC Retirement Income Analysis Tool

Program Link: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/catalogue/89260006

Sponsor: Social Development Canada (ESDC)

Description: SSHRC and Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) would like to share information regarding ESDC’s PASSAGES model and its potential as a research infrastructure tool for the research community, as it may be useful to Social Sciences and Humanities researchers in their research activities. PASSAGES is a dynamic microsimulation model developed to provide analysts in government and elsewhere with a tool capable of supporting research into the Canadian retirement income system.

Focused on the Canada Pension Plan (CPP), the first version of the model was publicly released in April 2024. Integration of Old Age Security and Guaranteed Income Supplement will be completed in 2025-2026. The latest version of the tool PASSAGES v1.2 can be found at: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/catalogue/89260006. The public version includes the source code, documentation, and synthetic starting database, and can also be obtained by contacting statcan.passagesmodel-modelepassages.statcan@statcan.gc.ca. A confidential starting database, hosted by Statistics Canada, is also available to authorized users.

PASSAGES brings added value to research and policy development on the retirement income system. The current version allows:

• examining outcomes of the CPP (including the recent enhancement) for future cohorts of retirees;
• assessing the impacts of different “what if” scenarios (e.g. inflation, immigration);
• evaluating the net effects of an increase in one of the CPP benefits (such as the survivor’s pension) on the amounts received by individuals, taking into account the rules that cap total combined benefits;
• comparing the earnings progression of different cohorts of contributors over their entire careers;
• studying the effects of different CPP parameters on sub-populations of interest, such as immigrants or precarious workers.

Contact: If you have any questions, contact ESDC Passages model team: statcan.passagesmodel-modelepassages.statcan@statcan.gc.ca.