Articles

FSCO has posted an Investment Guidance Note for public consultation regarding Prudent Investment Practices for Derivatives. The Note sets out FSCO’s expectations for plan administrators who choose to invest plan assets in derivatives.

The Ontario government has posted a paper outlining proposed amendments to the regulations under the Ontario Pension Benefits Act, which would allow pension plans to further invest in local infrastructure by exempting plans’ investments in certain Ontario public infrastructure projects from the “30 per cent” pension investment rule.

The Ontario government has posted draft amendments to General Regulation 909 which propose changes related to the following: commuted value transfers, statements to former and retired members and statements of investment policies and procedures.

On September 19, 2014, the federal government released the next round of proposed amendments to the Pension Benefits Standards Regulations, which will change or enact new provisions regarding plan investments, defined contribution (DC) pension plans, and disclosure to plan members.

After introducing a new DC component and giving employees a “one-time opportunity” to choose between their current DB plan and the new DC option, NCR decided to amend its plan so that all members still participating in the DB component of the plan would have to change to the DC component. An arbitrator found that NCR was estopped from doing so and this was upheld by the BC Labour Relations Board.

The Ontario government introduced Bill 14, Building Opportunity and Securing Our Future Act (Budget Measures), 2014, for first reading on July 14, 2014. The Bill includes amendments aimed at facilitating conversions of single employer pension plans to Jointly Sponsored Pension Plans and clarifying the confusion that arose as a result of the Ontario Court of Appeal’s decision in Carrigan v. Carrigan Estate.

Relying on s. 49 of the SPPA, which they argued established a deemed trust in their favour, the pension committees asked for a declaration that the unpaid pension contributions and any deficit to be determined on plan termination rank in priority to the Creditor’s security interest.

The employment of certain non-union employees, who were Quebec residents, was terminated as the result of a corporate restructuring. The employees argued that notwithstanding that they were Quebec residents, they were entitled to grow-in benefits per the Ontario Pension Benefits Act because they were promised that “their conditions of employment with Emerson would be unchanged from those they enjoyed at Nortel”.

An actuarial valuation revealed that contributions to the plan had to be increased. ICBC argued contributions must be equal between it and the employees, whereas the employees argued that their contributions were not to exceed 9% of their earnings as defined in the plan. In order to increase the employees’ contributions, it was necessary to apply to the Minister of National Revenue for a waiver. The three trustees appointed by ICBC refused to take any position on the matter.

In 1997, the plan was amended to expand investment options and the definition of “earnings” was mistakenly changed to include overtime and bonuses. This change, which was not discovered until 2013, was contrary to the employer's intention and to how it had been administering the plan. The employer applied to the court for an order of rectification, which was granted.