In a new white paper, the Association of Canadian Pension Management is urging the federal government to reform the Income Tax Act rules for registered pension plans. In the ACPM’s view, ITA reforms are required to build on government initiatives aimed at increasing retirement savings by updating the tax rules released in 1992 so they better reflect today’s socioeconomic environment and Canadians’ […]
Institutional investors have been rushing into the arms of alternative, less liquid, investments over the past two decades. But how major players approach these investments varies considerably, according to a paper by Kristy Jansen a PhD student at Tilburg University, and Patrick Tuijp, a research affiliate at the University of Amsterdam. In examining a survey of nine […]
The United Way Greater Toronto is the latest organization to join the Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology’s DBplus plan. Following a 90-day consent process, an overwhelming majority (99 per cent) of the 350 members of the organization’s defined benefit pension plan voted in favour of the move. Employees will begin contributing to and earning a pension under […]
Rayonier Advanced Materials is transferring a portion of its Canadian defined benefit plan obligations with a $293-million annuity buyout. Through the transaction, Sun Life will take over the responsibility for pension benefits owed to nearly 1,500 Ontario and Quebec pensioners and beneficiaries. The plan members include former employees of forestry company Tembec, which was acquired […]
Globally, negative yielding bonds are alarming investors. And while Canadian government bonds haven’t gone negative, movement in other countries is demonstrating to institutional investors that anything is possible. So if bond yields do go negative, what could this mean for Canadian pension plans’ funding statuses? Canadian defined benefit plans can be valued in three different ways, all […]
As employer-sponsored pension plans and personal retirement savings continue to shrink, the third pillar of Canada’s retirement income troika, the publicly funded Canada Pension Plan, is seeing improvements. Some of the enhancements, which are being gradually phased in from Jan. 1, 2019, borrow from what Australia already has in place for its superannuation system. In […]
Since the Teachers’ Retirement Allowance Fund, which is the defined benefit pension plan for public school teachers and other eligible employees in Manitoba, was introduced in 1925, it has made significant strides around asset mix and governance. In the early days, the fund’s asset mix consisted largely of federal, provincial and municipal bonds, but in […]
Roughly 3,200 Canadian National Railway Co. workers are on strike with outstanding issues including time-off provisions and lifetime caps on certain benefits. The strike, which began at midnight on Nov. 19, has seen conductors, train personnel and yard workers represented by the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference pushing for further bargaining progress on these issues and others, including safety and fatigue. […]
The University Pension Plan is appointing Gale Rubenstein as the inaugural chair of its board of trustees. The UPP will be the province’s first jointly sponsored defined benefit plan for Ontario’s university sector on its official registration date of Jan. 1, 2020. The plan will involve sponsorship from the University of Toronto, University of Guelph […]
The Federal Court has certified a $100 million class action brought by former members of the Canadian Armed Forces reserves who alleged that the government illegally delayed their retirement benefits. “There were 1,300 complaints to the CAF ombudsman between 2006 and 2017,” says Adam Tanel, an associate at Koskie Minsky LLP and co-counsel for the class. The […]