British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan have entered into a new multi-jurisdictional pension plan agreement.
More than 1,100 plans will fall under the agreement, which takes effect on July 1, 2016.
Large employers and unions operating in multiple Canadian jurisdictions, whether provincial or federal, often sponsor multi-jurisdictional pension plans. Under the new agreement, plan members can receive pension information based on legislation from any of the participating jurisdictions.
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The agreement also establishes rules on how multi-jurisdictional plan assets would be divided between jurisdictions if the plan terminates when under-funded.
As well, the agreement rules that when a plan member retires, they will receive pension benefits according to regulations of the jurisdiction in which they terminate their service, even if most of their benefits were accrued while working elsewhere.
For the jurisdictions that haven’t signed the 2016 agreement, the previous agreement, which dates to 1968, remains in place.
Read: Why Canada needs just one pension regulator
Editor’s note: Last sentence updated at 1pm to clarify timeline of previous agreement.