Nearly half of all Canadians have little or no confidence in the future of the Canada Pension Plan, according to a new Nanos Research survey.

Forty-eight per cent of Canadians polled said they were either "somewhat not confident" or "not confident" in the CPP (or the Quebec Pension Plan, for the Quebec sample).

That's up from 41 per cent in a 2010 Nanos survey.

The poll, conducted for CTV News and The Globe and Mail, comes as the Conservative government is considering changes to public pension plans, citing upcoming demographic changes.

Forty-one per cent of Canadians said they were confident or somewhat confident in their public pension plan. A majority of Canadians, 59 per cent, said they believed public pension payments will be reduced in the future.

Canadians' confidence in private company pensions was similar to the public pension numbers.

Forty-three per cent were confident or somewhat confident in their company plan, while 47 per cent were not confident or somewhat not confident. More than 60 per cent thought company plans would be reduced in the future.

Canadians increasingly say the government's priorities should be tax relief and strengthening pensions, the Nanos poll said.

However, job creation remains the top priority, with 32 per cent of Canadians saying it should be the government's first priority.

At 22 per cent, tax relief was the second priority, up six percentage points since a 2010 poll. Strengthening pensions was third, at 18 per cent, up five percentage points from 2010.

Reducing debt, at 17 per cent, was the fourth priority, down four percentage points from 2010.

The Nanos national random online survey is based on a representative random sample of 1,001 Canadians, conducted online by Nanos Research between February 7 and 11, 2012.