Canadians are looking at a future of working beyond the traditional retirement age and stashing away more savings in order to maintain their standard of living, the former Bank of Canada governor said in a speech Saturday.

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff, second from left, listens to a speech at the Canada 150 conference in Montreal on Saturday.

David Dodge was speaking to federal Liberals who have gathered in Montreal for a three-day public policy conference, featuring what the party says are 53 "leading thinkers and doers."

"Middle- and upper-income Canadians now in their prime earning years are both going to have to save more and expect to retire later in life than they'd hoped to do," Dodge said.

Most Canadians, he added, are not financially prepared for retirement.

Dodge said Canadians need to save between 10 and 22 per cent of their pre-tax incomes each year — if they save consistently for 35 years — to have comfortable retirement incomes.

For example, someone making $42,000 a year needs to save at least 11 per cent of his or her income every year in order to retire comfortably at the age of 65. The percentage increases for higher income-earners.

Baby boomers could be a burden

Demographics and labour expert Rick Miner predicted a shortage of skilled labour and a heavier burden on the health-care system.

"The time for action is now. Without change, this is our future. It's not going to be a pleasant one: millions of people without jobs and millions of jobs without people."

Miner said by 2017, retired baby boomers will leave society with higher health-care costs and a smaller tax base. At the same time, he said Canada's workforce will not be trained for a new knowledge economy.

Among his proposals, Miner said university students should attend classes through the summer in order to graduate sooner, and Canadians should do a better job of integrating immigrants, people with disabilities and aboriginal people into the workforce.

Former New Brunswick premier Frank McKenna said governments in Canada should focus more on preventive health policies. He recommended an "aggressive public relations campaign and education campaign" focusing on ways to stay healthy.

"We are an obese nation now," he said, adding Canadians don't exercise enough and consume too much sodium.

The Liberals' Canada 150 conference is billed as a non-partisan conference aimed at fostering discussion and new ideas ahead of Canada’s 150th birthday in 2017.

Party seeking fresh ideas

This is the third conference of its kind in the last 50 years. Each time the Liberals have held one, they have either lost a federal election or were otherwise in a slump.

The last such gathering was held in 1991, when the Liberals were in opposition and looking for fresh ideas.

Former prime minister Jean Chrétien was asked Saturday what he remembers as the best idea to emerge from that event.

"I had to make sure we won the election," he quipped.

On opening day of the Canada at 150 conference, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said Canada needs to invest in education and training, even as it tries to tame a record $54-billion deficit.

One of Sunday's speakers will be Robert Fowler, the former Canadian ambassador to the United Nations who was kidnapped by an al-Qaeda-linked group in Niger in late 2008. He was freed after four months.

Another speaker will be Derek Burney, who from 1987 to 1989 served as chief of staff to then-prime minister Brian Mulroney. Burney later served as Canada's ambassador to the United States.