Sun Life supports MEPPs; Manitoba to increase H&S fines; Quebec, Nova Scotia offer pension relief
Sun Life supports MEPPs
Toronto — The federal government should endorse multi-employer pension plans (MEPPs) as a way to ensure more Canadians are saving enough for retirement, said the president of insurance giant Sun Life Financial Canada. Millions of Canadians are not saving for retirement and millions of those who are still aren’t saving enough, Dean Connor told the Economic Club of Canada in December. MEPPs with automatic enrolment, automatic escalation and an opt-out clause would go a long way to addressing this problem, he said.
Manitoba to increase H&S fines
Winnipeg — Manitoba has proposed legislation to increase the maximum fine for workplace safety violations from $150,000 for a first offence to $250,000. The legislation would also increase the maximum fine for subsequent offences from $300,000 to $500,000.
Quebec, Nova Scotia offer pension relief
Quebec City, Halifax — The Quebec government has passed pension solvency relief legislation, giving plan sponsors the option of spreading deficits over a period of up to five years, consolidating prior deficiencies and utilizing an amortization period of up to 10 years, up to the end of the plan year following Dec. 31, 2017. The relief is only available for the first complete actuarial valuation after Dec. 30, 2008. Nova Scotia passed similar legislation. Plan sponsors will be able to use a 10-year amortization period, as opposed to the regular five-year period, for a solvency deficiency identified in the first valuation prepared between Dec. 30, 2008, and Jan. 2, 2011.
