Morneau Shepell Ltd. has appointed Mazen Shakeel as vice-president and practice leader for asset and risk management, effective July 2019. In the new role, he’ll assist plan sponsors with investment, outsourced chief investment officer, risk management and transfer-related needs. Read: Morneau Shepell to acquire some of Mercer’s U.S. health, DB plan administration business As an actuary with […]
The union representing employees of Dominion Stores supermarkets in Newfoundland is accusing parent company, Loblaw Companies Ltd., of using an increasing number of part-time employees in order to eliminate full-time jobs. Loblaw offered voluntary buyout packages to its full-time staffers in Newfoundland in June, with the aim of eliminating 44 positions, as part of what […]
The Pension Investment Association of Canada is commending Nova Scotia on its proposed changes for improving the province’s pension funding framework. In a letter, the PIAC noted it supports the provision for statutory discharge following an annuity buyout, as well as the province’s move to to reduce the solvency threshold to 85 per cent and enhance pension plan […]
Staff members at three Ontario universities are one step closer to a new jointly sponsored pension plan. Three faculty groups and three affiliated United Steelworkers local unions for the University of Toronto, University of Guelph and Queen’s University finished voting on June 28 to create the University Pension Plan, a defined benefit arrangement that will […]
Canadian defined benefit pension plans maintained their solvency levels through the second quarter of 2019, according to Mercer’s latest pension health index. The index, which represents the solvency ratio of a hypothetical plan, reached 106 per cent as of June 30, 2019, an increase from 102 per cent at the year’s outset. The current solvency […]
Unionized employees of the Aluminerie de Bécancour Inc. aluminum smelter in Quebec, who’ve been locked out for nearly 18 months, have accepted the company’s latest offer, which includes larger employer contributions to the defined benefit pension plan. At a general membership meeting earlier this week in Trois-Rivières, Que., workers voted by a 79.8 per cent […]
The Canadian Press, London Cross Cultural Learner Centre and Postmedia Network Inc. are among the latest organizations joining the Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology pension plan’s new DBplus plan. Both CP and Postmedia are merging their previous defined benefit pension plan liabilities and assets into the CAAT. They also received overwhelming support from employees: all […]
Looking back over years of momentous corporate bankruptcies and their impact on defined benefit pension plan members, the current fervor around Sears Canada Inc. hardly seems to mark a new trend. Before Sears, and even before Stelco Inc., there was Nortel Networks Corp. In 2009, when the multinational telecommunications company filed for bankruptcy protection in […]
Though Trish McAuliffe didn’t know much about pension benefits at the time, they were at the heart of one of her earliest working memories. In the 1980s, McAuliffe was a new employee at General Motors of Canada Co., putting together automobile interiors, when she dutifully joined the picket line during an eruption of labour strife […]
With renewed volatility prompting money managers back on their toes, equity markets have been leading investment industry discussions over the past few quarters. Against this backdrop, how is fixed income, the other fundamental building block of defined benefit pension portfolios, faring? For David Lafferty, senior vice-president and chief market strategist at Natixis Investment Managers, the […]