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Canada’s finance ministers will meet in Vancouver today for a new round of talks on pensions, resolute in their determination to solve a crisis that doesn’t exist.

Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau has pledged to seek agreement on “enhancing” the Canada Pension Plan by the end of the year. An initial meeting with provincial counterparts in December was considered a success in so far as no one stomped out of the room in outrage. But no actual money was on the table at the time; the ministers merely agreed to “enter into discussions to review next steps,” and to meet again. The Vancouver meeting may mark the beginning of the hard part.

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The task is complicated by several uncomfortable realities. One is that there is no crisis. According to any number of reports by respected institutions, both in Canada and abroad, Canadian seniors are doing quite well. Four out of five have the income they need in retirement. The poverty rate among seniors has plummeted over the past four decades: although advocacy groups pick and choose the figures they use to best bolster their argument, even the starkest numbers suggest seven out of eight seniors are above the line. Compared to other developed countries, Canada ranks near the very top; Statistics Canada figures show the share of seniors living in low-income families fell from 29 per cent in 1976 to 5.2 per cent in 2011, four points lower than the overall population.