Squeezed by onerous funding requirements and overarching fiduciary duties, defined benefit plan sponsors are increasingly willing to embrace alternative structures — such as multi-employer pension plans, jointly sponsored pension plans and pooled registered pension plans — to relieve some of the pressure. “Most employers simply shouldn’t be in the business of running a pension plan, […]
Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board is converting its defined benefit pension plan to a jointly sponsored model, making it the first single-employer plan in Canada to make the change. The Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario approved the move on Dec. 5, 2019, and the conversion is expected to take place on July 1, 2020. […]
Like many plans, the Newfoundland and Labrador Teachers’ Pension Plan came out of 2008 in rough shape. So, the government started to discuss what should be done to deal with the plan’s unfunded liability. In 2015, the agreement was made to turn the plan into a jointly sponsored pension plan, and the Teachers’ Pension Plan […]
Rewind to August 2015. The Newfoundland and Labrador Teachers’ Pension Plan was underfunded on both a solvency and going-concern basis, at 43.7 per cent and 65 per cent, respectively. Fast forward to year-end 2018 and it sits at a healthy 101.7 per cent on a going-concern basis. The turnaround stems from substantial changes to governance, […]
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 […]
The Ontario government is eliminating the requirement of government approval for employers seeking to merge single-employer pension plans with jointly sponsored pension plans. The change, put through as Bill 66, repeals section 80.4(1) of the Pension Benefits Act. It’s intended to make it easier for employers to pool risk, according to a release from the province’s Ministry of […]
On March 1, 2019, Alberta’s Local Authorities Pension Plan gained independence from the government by becoming a jointly sponsored pension plan. “The history of LAPP is that the Minister of Finance of the province of Alberta has historically been the trustee of the pension fund and the administrator of the plan, and this new legislation […]
The single-employer defined benefit model doesn’t work for the university sector for one clear reason, says Cynthia Messenger, president of the University of Toronto’s Faculty Association. “The model is flawed in one crucial way,” she says. “When the plan accrues debt, the university administration must repay that debt to the pension plan. And the only […]
Faculty associations at three Ontario universities, as well as certain affiliated unions, have passed a preliminary vote to convert their various existing pension arrangements into a jointly sponsored pension plan. The University of Toronto Faculty Association, the University of Guelph Faculty Association, Queen’s University Faculty Association, United Steelworkers Local 1998, United Steelworkers Local 4120 and United […]
The Corporation of the City of York Employee Pension Plan officially transferred the management of its assets and liabilities to the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System plan last week, as part of a broader initiative to transfer four pre-OMERS plans from the City of Toronto to OMERS. The City of York plan was closed to […]