In the wake of the pandemic-related market volatility that battered already challenged public sector defined benefit plans in the U.S., a recent paper by New York University’s Stern School of Business is arguing that Canadian-style reforms could help secure these plans for the long term. “The COVID-19 pandemic introduced new fissures in state and local […]
Nova Scotia Pension Services Corp. finished 2019 with almost $12 billion in assets under management and reported sharply diverging year-end results for the two pension plans it manages. The Nova Scotia Teachers’ Pension Plan, which ended its fiscal year on Dec. 31, 2019, had a 12.36 per cent net return, as reported in late April. The TPP […]
Quebec has published new draft regulations aimed at helping the administrators of supplemental pension plans to navigate the coronavirus pandemic. The proposed regulations would allow plan members to maintain their active membership in a supplemental plan even if they’re experiencing a temporary suspension in accruing benefits, as long as that suspension began in 2020 and doesn’t last longer than […]
Sun Life Canada is launching an environmental, social and governance framework for its group retirement services to help pension plan sponsors and members make sustainable investing decisions. The framework is meant to identify ESG leaders in both funds and managers across all major asset categories offered in the record-keeper’s group retirement services core investment platform, […]
Canada’s pension regulations have been designed to govern defined benefit plans and are a bad fit for target-benefit and multi-employer pension plans, according to a new report by the C.D. Howe Institute. The report, authored by Barry Gros, a retired actuary and chair of the University of British Columbia staff pension plan, argued that the […]
The Ontario government has significantly cut financial penalties for plan sponsors making a late payment of a pension benefits guarantee fund assessment. The change, made through an amendment to the provincial Pension Benefits Act, will apply to plan sponsors that fail to pay their PBGF assessments that are due between April 30 and Dec. 31. Read: An overview […]
The Canada Revenue Agency is waiving the one per cent minimum required employer contribution on defined contribution pension plans for the remainder of 2020. Registered DC plan sponsors are required to contribute at least one per cent of all active members’ pensionable earnings each year. But in light of the coronavirus pandemic, the Minister of National […]
The Nova Scotia Teachers’ Pension Plan Trustee Inc. has appointed John Rogers as its new chair, effective July 1, 2020. The trusteeship manages the plan, which has a membership made up of teachers in the province represented by the Nova Scotia Teachers Union, as well as school administrators, faculty and professional support staff at the […]
Retraite Quebec is implementing two temporary easing measures to help supplemental pension plan administrators during the coronavirus outbreak. The measures involve extending deadlines for certain regulatory and legal obligations, as well as an update to the degree of solvency that must be taken into account for transfers and refunds under defined benefit pension plans. Deadlines for […]
An arbitrator has ruled in favour of the Winnipeg Police Association in its dispute with the City of Winnipeg over the police pension plan. The association filed the grievance in November 2019 after the City attempted to make alterations to the defined benefit pension plan. The changes included increasing employee contributions from eight per cent to 11.5 […]