The pre‑budget submission to Finance Canada would lift annual contribution room to $56,350 and open registered plans to private equity and venture capital funds
The RRSP and defined contribution pension plan limit would rise to 30 percent of earned income from 18 percent, lifting maximum annual contribution room to $56,350 from $33,810.
The Canadian Forum for Financial Markets (CFFiM) put that recommendation to Finance Canada in a pre‑budget submission filed September 8, together with a call to fully index the limits to inflation.
The 18 percent cap dates to 1992 and rests on demographic and economic assumptions that are now outdated, the forum said, and it disadvantages Canadians holding RRSPs and defined contribution plans, common in the private sector, relative to those with defined benefit plans, more prevalent in the public sector.
CFFiM also wants the RRSP-to-RRIF conversion age raised to 74 from 71, and mandatory minimum withdrawal rates reduced and ultimately eliminated.
Life expectancy at 71 was 13.7 years when the modern RRIF calculation was set in 1992 and is about 16.1 years today, according to Statistics Canada figures cited in the submission, while the survival rate at age 95 has risen to 14 percent from 7.5 percent.
Eliminating annual minimums would mainly defer rather than forgo government revenue, the forum argued, since withdrawals stay taxable when taken voluntarily or on death.
Registered plans should admit eligible private equity and venture capital funds as qualified investments on a prospective basis, the submission recommends, opening access to opportunities traditionally limited to institutional investors, high‑net‑worth individuals, and family offices.
CFFiM ties the change to portfolio diversification for savers and a larger pool of patient capital for Canadian startups and high‑growth firms.
The forum is asking Ottawa to treat capital sovereignty as a core component of economic policy and to reform tax, regulatory, and financial‑market rules that impede the formation, retention, and productive deployment of capital in Canada.
Canada is spending heavily on energy, defence capabilities, infrastructure, and strategic industries, said Laura Paglia, president and CEO of CFFiM, in the organization's announcement of the filing.
Paglia said the country "cannot strengthen its economic sovereignty without strengthening its capacity to finance those ambitions," and that competitive domestic markets are needed alongside foreign investment.
Public debt charges will climb to $80.9bn in 2030‑31 from $54.0bn in 2025‑26, absorbing 13.2 percent of total revenue rather than 10.6 percent, CFFiM said, citing the government's Spring Economic Update 2026.
The $54.0bn spent on interest in 2025‑26 roughly matched the $54.7bn transferred to provinces and territories through the Canada Health Transfer.
The submission calls for the debt-to-GDP ratio to be restored as the fiscal anchor, with a medium‑term path back to about 31 percent, its 2019‑20 level, against a projected rise to 41.6 percent from 40.7 percent.
On tax, the forum recommends compressing five federal brackets into three, cutting the 20.5 percent rate to 14 percent over six years starting in 2027, the 29 percent rate to 26 percent, and the top rate to 29 percent from 33 percent, funded in part by raising the GST by one percentage point in each of 2027 and 2028 to 7 percent.
The statutory federal corporate rate should fall to 13 percent from 15 percent across the same two years, according to the submission, which noted that Canada's 12.3‑point corporate tax advantage over the United States in 2017 has disappeared.
CFFiM said federal financial regulators should carry domestic and international competition and market growth as explicit mandate objectives.
It urged Ottawa to build a coordinated national capital markets competitiveness agenda with the provinces, territories, and securities regulators.
