An article on incoming changes to Nova Scotia’s provincial Pension Benefits Act was the most-read story on BenefitsCanada.com this past week. Here are the top five human resources, benefits, pension and investment stories of the last week: 1. Nova Scotia to allow unlocking of pension benefits 2. Alberta government fires AIMCo CEO, board, citing rising costs and poor […]
The Nova Scotia government is updating the provincial Pension Benefits Act to allow the unlocking of pension benefits. Effective April 1, 2025, plan members aged 55 and older will have a one-time ability to unlock up to 50 per cent of their locked-in funds when transferring to a life income fund. Read: Quebec’s amendment to […]
The Nova Scotia government is offering to pay up to $15,000 a year into a new retirement benefits program for doctors in hopes the public money will keep more physicians in the province. Premier Tim Houston announced the new program Wednesday, saying the annual contributions will be available to Nova Scotia’s roughly 3,000 doctors at […]
The Nova Scotia Pension Services Corp. — which administers the investment assets of the Public Service Superannuation Plan and the Teachers’ Pension Plan — reported an increase in net assets to $13.7 billion, a year-over-year increase of about $670 million, for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2024. The PSSP saw an investment return of 7.93 […]
The Medicus Pension Plan, a defined benefit multi-employer pension plan designed exclusively for incorporated physicians in Canada, reported a funded status of 158 per cent on a going-concern basis and a 115 per cent funded status on a solvency basis as of Jan. 1, 2024. The plan, which launched in May 2023, is designed to […]
The government of Nova Scotia is introducing a new benefits and pension package for roughly 3,000 early childhood educators and support staff. All employees will be enrolled in the Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology’s DBplus pension plan. The province will fund employers to provide pension contributions retroactive to Jan. 1, 2024. The province will […]
Nova Scotia-based private employers can now transfer their pension plans into the Public Service Superannuation Plan. The Private Sector Pension Plan Transfer Act, which received royal assent on Nov. 9, provides all employers based in the province with the option of offering or continuing to offer a defined benefit pension plan with a prescribed funding […]
Pay transparency legislation is quickly gathering steam in Canada as provincial governments take steps towards shrinking the gender wage gap. Prince Edward Island was first to the post with pay transparency provisions in June 2022. While Newfoundland and Labrador’s Pay Equity and Transparency Act received royal assent in November 2022, its pay transparency provisions haven’t […]
The Nova Scotia Labour Board has ordered St. Mary’s University to resume making pension contributions for employees on long-term disability leave, reasoning that the pension committee had no authority to make changes to contribution levels mandated by the plan. “The board found that amendments to the pension plan proposed by the pension committee — the […]
While right-to-disconnect legislation provides employees with a clear definition of their expected work hours, governments have to be careful they aren’t overly regulating because people have different ways of working productively, says Elaine Gringauz-Yedlin, chief operating officer of corporate benefits at Johnston Shaw Inc. “I have two young children and sometimes during the day I get […]