Supporting Documentation: Summary of transactions in public sector pensions that resulted in charges to expenses, as per the Public Accounts of Canada

General Notes

Notes:

• Amounts are rounded to the nearest million, matching how the values are represented in the associated table within the Public Accounts of Canada. As of the PAC 2025 release of this data, a new field Amount-units_Montant-unite has been added to the CSV file to clearly indicate this for all rows.
• The title of the dataset was changed from "Summary of transactions in public sector pensions that resulted in charges to expenditures" to "Summary of transactions in the public sector pensions that resulted in charges to expenses" in FY 2018/2019.
• The blank cells in this dataset are due to the following:
  • Name changes for elements under header Type-detail_eng
  • Deletion of inactive elements under header Type-detail_eng
  • Addition of an entity without details on specific pension accounts
• As part of the 2023/2024 release, the English and French CSV files were combined together into one bilingual data file.
• As of the 2025 release, the following columns were renamed to improve readability and bilingualism:
  • Category_Categorie_eng was renamed to Category_Categorie_eng
  • CATÉGORIE was renamed to Category_Categorie_fra
  • Account_Compte_eng was renamed to Account_Compte_eng
  • COMPTE was renamed to Account_Compte_fra
  • Entity was renamed to Entity_Entite_eng
  • Entité was renamed to Entity_Entite_fra
  • TYPE_EN was renamed to Type-detail_eng
  • TYPE_FR was renamed to Type-detail_fra

Adjustments to past years' records

Notes:

• Under the header 2013/2014-COMP, a significant class of pension benefits related to comparative figures for consolidated Crown corporations and other entities was reclassified from other accounts payable and accrued liabilities to public sector pensions.
• As part of the 2017/2018 release, comparative figures for certain unfunded pension benefit related elements were restated under the header 2016/2017-COMP. Details on the restatement can be found in Note 2 in Section 2 of Volume I of the Public Accounts of Canada.
• As part of the 2020/2021 release, under the header 2016/2017-COMP, amounts were corrected to present restated figures as published in Volume I of the Public Accounts of Canada 2018. A formula error in the initial spreadsheet had erroneously modified these figures in the portal’s source documents for 2019 and 2020.
• In the 2021/2022 release, in the English datafile only: the data for records for Type-detail_eng values of "Funding of actuarial liability adjustment" and "Funding of actuarial liability services" with Account_Compte_eng values of "Canadian Forces Pension Fund Account" were merged together for under a Type-detail_eng value of "Funding of actuarial liability adjustment" for the fiscal year 2012/2013 in order to be consistent with the French version
• In the 2022/2023 release, in the English datafile only, the row associated with a Category_Categorie_eng of "Funded pension benefits", an Account_Compte_eng of "Reserve Force Pension Fund Account" and a Type-detail_eng of "Costs recorded in previous years" previously had a type-o of ""TY" under the header Entity_Entite_eng. This type-o has now been removed.
• Prior to the 2022/2023 release, records with only values of "0" across the fiscal year columns were removed from the dataset. As of the 2022/2023 release, these records have been included. This resulted in a number of additional records being added to the CSV file, expanding on the number of Type-detail_eng values associated with each Entity_Entite_eng.
• In the 2022/2023 release, the following values were corrected for previous years that had previously been reported as zero and therefore not included in the CSV file:
  • Category_Categorie_eng: "Unfunded pension benefits", Account_Compte_eng: "Other (diplomatic services, lieutenant governors, etc.)", Type-detail_eng: "Net interest expense", 2011/2012: 2
  • Category_Categorie_eng: "Unfunded pension benefits", Account_Compte_eng: "Contributions from the Judge's plan recorded to revenues", Type-detail_eng: "Net interest expense", 2011/2012: 14
  • Category_Categorie_eng: "Unfunded pension benefits", Account_Compte_eng: "Contributions from the Judge's plan recorded to revenues", Type-detail_eng: "Actuarial losses (gains) recognized", 2020/2021: -18
• As of the 2023/2024 release, an additional Type-detail_eng entry of "Valuation allowance" was added to each Entity_Entite_eng in the CSV file. Additional Type-detail_eng values were also added to the "Canadian Forces Superannuation Account", the "Defence Services Pension Continuation Act", and the "Royal Canadian Mounted Police Superannuation Account", including the following non-zero values which were corrected for previous years:
  • Category_Categorie_eng: "Unfunded pension benefits", Account_Compte_eng: "Canadian Forces Superannuation Account", Type-detail_eng: "Actuarial adjustments":
    • 2017/2018: 1813
    • 2018/2019: 3107
    • 2020/2021: 2605
    • 2021/2022: 7805
  • Category_Categorie_eng: "Unfunded pension benefits", Account_Compte_eng: "Canadian Forces Superannuation Account", Type-detail_eng: "Costs recorded in previous years":
    • 2017/2018: -1813
    • 2018/2019: -3107
    • 2020/2021: -2605
    • 2021/2022: -7805

Data under the Category_Categorie_eng or Category_Categorie_fra headings

Notes:

• This column sorts the various accounts according to their funded or unfunded nature as per the reporting format modified as of 2012/2013.
• As of 2014/2015:
  • The element "Funded pension plans" was updated in all records to read "Funded pension benefits"
  • The element "Unfunded pension plans" was updated in all records to read "Unfunded pension benefits"

Data under the Account_Compte_eng or Account_Compte_fra headings

Notes:

• The element "Public Service Superannuation Account" includes payments under the Supplementary Retirement Benefits Act and various other acts.
• The following elements include consolidated Crown corporations and other entities’ contributions to their pension plans and statutory payments made to beneficiaries:
  • "Defence Services Pension Continuation Act"
  • "Royal Canadian Mounted Police Continuation Act"
  • "Judges Act"
  • "Other (diplomatic services, lieutenant governors, etc.)"
• "Retirement Compensation Arrangements (RCA) Account" was replace with "Retirement Compensation Arrangement Accounts" in 2018/2019

Data under the Entity_Entite_eng or Entity_Entite_fra headings

Notes:

• In the French file: the value "Sociétés d'État consolidées et autres entités" was replaced with "Sociétés d'État et autres entités consolidées" for all related records in 2019/2020
• "Consolidated Crown corporations and other entities" values include consolidated Crown corporations and other entities’ contributions to their pension plans and statutory payments made to beneficiaries

Data under the Type-detail_eng or Type-detail_fra headings

Notes:

• Amounts related to "Actuarial adjustments" represent actuarial adjustments to amortize deficiencies from 2015/2016 and 2016/2017, and represent actuarial adjustments to amortize deficiencies and excesses for all other years
• "Amortization of estimation adjustments" was replaced with "Actuarial losses (gains) recognized" in 2012/2013
• "Costs already recorded in the allowance for pension adjustments of previous years" was replaced with "Costs recoded in previous years" in 2013/2014
• Amounts related to "Costs recorded in previous years" represent the reversal of costs already recorded in the allowance for pension adjustments of previous years
• "Current service cost adjustments" was replaced with "Adjustment" in 2012/2013
• "Funding of actuarial liability services" was replaced with "Actuarial adjustments" in 2013/2014
• "Government contributions" was replaced with "Government contributions and other" in 2014/2015
• The term "other" in element "Government contributions and other" includes consolidated Crown corporations and other entities’ contributions to their pension plans, as well as statutory payments made to beneficiaries under the Defence Services Pension Continuation Act, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Continuation Act, the Judges Act, and other acts regarding diplomatic services, lieutenant governors, etc.
• "Net pension interest expenses" was replaced with "Net interest expense" in 2012/2013
• "Pension plan amendment costs" was replaced with "Plan amendments" in 2012/2013
• "Plan amendments" was replaced with "Plan curtailment" in 2014/2015
• "Plan curtailment" reverted to "Plan amendments" in 2015/2016
• "Plan amendments" was replaced with "Plan amendments/curtailments" in 2016/2017
• "Plan amendments/curtailments" reverted to "Plan curtailments" in 2018/2019
• "Valuation allowance" entries with an Entity_Entite_eng value of "Consolidated Crown corporations and other entities" were moved in the dataset to be presented before "Actuarial losses (gains) recognized" entries, as per the Public Accounts of Canada publication from 2020/2021 onward

Related Links

• Previous years: Public Accounts of Canada
• Current year: Public Accounts of Canada
• Open Government Portal