The government is introducing automatic enrolment for the guaranteed income supplement benefit beginning this month. The automatic enrolment means that, each month, up to 17,000 Canadian seniors who turn 64 on or after Dec. 1, 2017, will be selected to be automatically enrolled for the GIS benefit without having to complete an application, according to the […]
Organizations representing Canada’s veterans say the government’s announcement of the long-awaited lifelong disability pensions has failed to live up to the Liberal’s election promise. Veterans Affairs Minister Seamus O’Regan unveiled the new pensions in December, but the National Council of Veteran Associations and the War Amps of Canada are contending that they’ll have limited applicability to a majority of disabled […]
There was plenty of news in the pension, benefits, investment and human resources industries to tweet out to Benefits Canada‘s more than 3,200 followers in 2017. Here are the top tweets of last year. Thank you to our readers for engaging with the content and, if Benefits Canada isn’t in your Twitter feed already, don’t forget to follow us @BenCanMag. Stiff competition drives […]
With 2017 coming to a close and 2018 on the horizon, professionals in the pension, investment, benefits and human resources industries have a number of dates to add to their calendars for the new year. Jan. 1: Ontario’s new youth pharmacare program takes effect. It will provide universal coverage of all medicines listed in the Ontario Drug Benefit […]
As 2017 draws to a close, we turn our attention to the new year. As usual, there’s a lot happening in the Canadian pension environment. Below are four pension trends to watch for in 2018. 1. Canada Pension Plan/Quebec Pension Plan reform The Canada Pension Plan enhancements will be phased in from Jan. 1, 2019, and the Quebec […]
Bankruptcy and its impact on company’s pension plans was a big story in 2017, with Sears Canada Inc. and Stelco Inc. grabbing the most headlines of the year. Benefits Canada rounds up your favourite pension stories of 2017: Sears faces $300M retirement benefit shortfall as retailer seeks CCAA protection 2017 Top 100 Pension Funds Report: The evolution of DB […]
With the pension woes at Sears Canada Inc. in the spotlight, the political parties have been busy touting their solutions to the defined benefit conundrum. This fall, parliamentarians from both the Bloc Québécois and the New Democratic Party put forth private members’ bills aimed at boosting the priority of pension obligations during bankruptcy and restructuring […]
Ontario has published a description of its new funding framework for defined benefit pension plans, including details on how the provision for adverse deviations will work under new going-concern rules. Under the proposed new funding framework, the provision for adverse deviation — a percentage used to determine additional contributions in respect of the normal cost and going-concern […]
At a meeting in Ottawa on Monday, Canada’s finance ministers agreed in principle to a number of additional features in the Canada Pension Plan enhancement that would help further protect the value of retirement benefits during periods of low or no earnings for parents, persons with disabilities and young widows. The proposed changes are: Further support […]
Some $2.5 billion of group annuity purchases were placed during the first three quarters of 2017, in line with the total annual sales for the past few years, according to Willis Towers Watson’s latest report on the Canadian annuity market. The vast majority of year-to-date annuity transactions were for ongoing pension plans, which demonstrates the continued trend […]