The City of Toronto has completed the transfer of its Metropolitan Toronto Pension Plan to the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System. The Metro plan was the last of the City’s four defined benefit plans to move to OMERS, following the Corporation of the City of York Employee Pension Plan, the Metropolitan Toronto Police Benefit Fund […]
Coquitlam, B.C.’s School District #43 has appointed CWB Trust Services as custodian and trustee for its non-teaching staff’s defined benefit pension plan. “As we conducted our review, we were pleased by the flexible service model and single integrated reporting platform,” said Chris Nicolls, chief financial officer and secretary-treasurer for the school district, in a press release. […]
Unifor is calling out the Federated Co-operatives Ltd. for delaying bargaining after hitting an impasse in a pension dispute. Currently, the Co-op employees’ defined benefit pension is fully funded by the employer. The conflict started in mid-December when the Co-op proposed that employees begin paying 11 per cent of contributions, among other concessions. Unifor members have been blockading […]
Canadian defined benefit pension plans returned a median 2.52 per cent for the fourth quarter of 2019, reflecting an improved economic outlook for investors, according to BNY Mellon Asset Management Canada Ltd. Its Canadian master trust universe, which is based on 84 Canadian corporate, public and university pension plans, reported a one-year median return of […]
After years of consultation, the Canadian Institute of Actuaries’ Actuarial Standards Board has finalized changes to key components of how commuted values payable from pension plans are calculated. Among other applications, the commuted-value standard is used to determine how much to pay a terminating plan member who chooses to take their pension payment as a […]
The union representing 3,700 public sector employees in Newfoundland and Labrador are rejecting a proposed collective agreement from the provincial government, saying it includes unacceptable pension concessions. While the deal would provide workers with a wage increase of two per cent annually for two years, the Canadian Union of Public Employees Newfoundland and Labrador — […]
Canadian defined benefit plans posted a median return of 13.6 per cent for 2019, according to Northern Trust Canada’s pension universe. North American equities led the way to double-digit returns for the year, with 1.9 per cent gains in the final quarter of the year, outpacing 1.6 per cent returns in the previous quarter. “Despite […]
New York City is taking major steps toward divesting from fossil fuels by hiring investment advisors to review three of its pension plans and make recommendations about divestment. Combined, the three plans have more than $155 billion in assets under management, of which about $3 billion is invested in fossil fuel reserve owners’ securities. The […]
CARP is highlighting the need for further protections for defined benefit pensions in its 2020 Ontario budget priorities. The submission noted CARP, formerly the Canadian Association of Retired Persons, supports the steps taken by the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario and the provincial government to bolster innovation in DB plan design, as well as reducing red […]
Pension funds ended 2019 on a strong note, with diversified pooled fund managers posting a median return of 2.6 per cent before management fees in the fourth quarter, according to Morneau Shepell Ltd.’s performance universe of pension managers’ pooled funds. Year-to-date, the return was a stellar 15.8 per cent, with both stock and bond markets […]