It’s being credited to good performance on the stock market.

A new report shows Canada’s pension plans received a much-needed boost in the first three months of this year.

The Mercer consulting firm  says a typical balanced Canadian plan  returned 4.1 per cent in the first quarter sharply improving solvency positions.

In Canada, the best performers were healthcare  up 22.8 per cent information technology up 17.5 per cent and industrials  up 14.2 per cent.