Premier Brian Pallister and Finance Minister Cameron Friesen presented their amendments to the federal government's plan to increase the Canadian Pension Plan contributions. Every province except Manitoba and Quebec signed on to the agreement, which would see contributions increase by seven dollars per month, for a working earning about $55,000 per year, and those contributions would also be matched by employers. Pallister feels the new plan benefits millennials, but adds the plan should benefit all CPP contributors.

"I think a year from now we'd look back and say it was a missed opportunity, and it will be too late. I think it's critical, that we use the consensus that seems to have emerged, and we use it to the benefit of all Canadian retirees now."

The amendments were presented by the province earlier this week, and Pallister feels they'll go a long way to creating a more comprehensive Canada Pension Plan. He also feels there's enough support now that the discussion has started, to take a bit of a different route than what was proposed by the federal government.

"For all seniors and all of us who are going to retire one day, we hope to have a CPP that's more responsive to our needs, and does a better job of supporting Manitobans and Canadians in their retirement years. That's the goal of this dialogue. A week and a half ago there was no consensus, now there's a consensus to make it bigger, and we want to develop a consensus to make it better."

Amendments introduced by the province include reducing the claw back of guaranteed income supplement payments for widowed seniors’ CPP survivor benefits, indexation of the death benefit, extending the phase-in of the upper earnings limit, and committing to a comprehensive review of all CPP benefits.