The number of Canadian chief financial officers who believe the country's pension deficit crisis will persist has more than doubled since last year, according to a new study.

The percentage of Canadian CFOs who said problems in the pension system are widespread and will continue beyond the next few years rose to 43%, compared with 20% in 2004, according to preliminary results from a survey jointly conducted by Watson Wyatt Worldwide and the Conference Board of Canada.

The number of CFOs who said the problems are widespread, but largely cyclical and unlikely to become permanent, decreased from 39% in 2004 to 23% this year.

Several past studies have indicated that the majority of defined benefit pension plans in Canada are underfunded, forcing plan sponsors to make sizeable pension contributions.

Currently, 57% of the CFOs said their companies are making the required minimum contributions to their pension plans, compared with 32% who are contributing more than the minimum, according to the study.The CFOs said the top threats to defined benefit pensions are the volatility of future contribution levels (67%) and the imbalance between pension funding and benefits (57%).

The CFOs consider most threats to the sustainability of defined contribution plans to be minor, except for a lack of investment knowledge among members—cited as a major threat by 47% of respondents.

More than 64% of CFOs said the adoption of a single pension regulator would strengthen the pension system. In addition, about 60% supported raising the "excess surplus" threshold—currently at 10%—which would allow plan sponsors to save excess surplus funds for times when their pension plans are in a more precarious funding position.

The survey collected responses from 77 chief financial officers, 64 of whom were in the private sector and 38% of whom managed assets greater than $400 million Canadian. Sixty-four percent of the plans sponsored by respondents are defined benefit plans, 23% are defined contribution, and 13% are combination plans.

The full survey will be available this fall.