Amendments to the Pension Benefits Standards Regulations, 1985 (Canada) (PBSR) regarding pension plan investments, defined contribution (DC) plans and disclosure of information to plan members, among other things, were published in the Canada Gazette this week, and are scheduled to come into force on April 1, 2015 and July 1, 2016, as detailed below.
An earlier draft of the revised Schedule III to the PBSR (the “investment rules”), initially published last fall for comment, raised concern in the pension community that the new investment rules did not fully support modern pension investment practices. As a result of industry feedback, the investment rules have been further revised to address many of the concerns raised.
The key changes to the investment rules as well as the amendments to the PBSR related to DC plans and disclosure of information to plan members are summarized below.
Federal Investment Rules
The revised investment rules are scheduled to come into force on July 1, 2016, and will apply to federally regulated plans plus all Canadian jurisdictions that have adopted the federal investment rules, as they are amended from time to time —namely, Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Newfoundland & Labrador.
Anna Zalewski and Paul Litner – Pensions & Benefits Law – March 26th, 2015.
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