With a defined benefit pension covering your baseline income, you’re in a strong position to defer CPP — and in most cases, you should.

Your OMERS pension already provides guaranteed, indexed income from day one. That means you don’t need CPP at 58 or 65 to cover living expenses. You can let CPP grow at 0.7% per month past age 65 — a permanent 42% increase at age 70 — while drawing from your RRSP to bridge the gap.

That RRSP drawdown serves double duty. Reducing it before age 71 lowers your future RRIF balance and future mandatory withdrawals — which helps you stay below the OAS clawback threshold of $90,997 when OAS starts.

The break-even between CPP at 65 versus 70 is roughly age 82–83. Retiring at 58 with good longevity ahead, deferring to 70 is almost always the stronger move.