Canadian taxfilers increased their contributions to a Registered Retirement Savings Plan in the 2004 tax year for the second year in a row, Statistics Canada reported today.

At the same time, the number of contributors rose slightly, StatsCan said.

Contributions last year totalled nearly $28.8 billion, up 4.5% from 2003, which followed a 1.8% increase the year before.

The turnaround in contributions followed two years of declines.

StatsCan said 6,002,350 taxfilers contributed to an RRSP in 2004, a slight 0.9% gain from 2003. This upturn halted a decline in contributors, which had occurred each year following a peak in 2000 when almost 6.3 million people made a contribution.

Similar to recent years, for the 2004 tax year, almost 80% of taxfilers were eligible to contribute, and of these, about 33% actually made contributions.

The government agency noted that 2004’s total contribution of $28.8 billion represented only about 8% of the total room available to eligible taxfilers.

Contributions rose in all provinces and territories except Yukon, where they fell 2.8%.

Taxfilers in Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador recorded the largest percentage increase in contributions at 6.2%, followed by those in Northwest Territories, whose contributions rose 5.4%.

The government agency suggested the growing number of contributors and back-to-back annual increase in contributions may have been the result of increases in the maximum annual RRSP contribution limit.

The fixed maximum in 2004 was $15,500, up from $14,500 in 2003 and $13,500 between 1996 and 2002.

Nationally, the median contribution remained the same in 2004 at $2,600.