Time Capsule: 35 years of Benefits Canada

A look back at our industry…

1976 – ACPM launches

1977 – Maclean Hunter Publishing Ltd. launches Benefits Canada magazine

1977 – Nova Scotia passes its first Pension Benefits Act

1977 – Benefits Canada‘s first annual survey of group insurance carriers

1977 – The Pension Investment Association of Canada (PIAC) is established

1978 – Canada Pension Plan introduces credit splitting

1980 – Benefits Canada’s first annual Top Pension Funds Report

1980 – First healthcare spending account is implemented in Canada

1980 – The Task Force on Retirement Income Policy (the Lazar Report) and the Royal Commission on the Status of Pensions in Ontario (the Haley Report) are released

1980 – Benefits Canada’s first annual money managers survey

1980 – Ontario introduces plan termination insurance

1982 – Time Capsule Read: Put 25% into real estate

1983 – Report on the Parliamentary Task Force on Pension Reform (the Frith report) is issued

1983 – Manitoba passes amendments to its Pension Benefits Act

1984 – First full flexible benefits program in Canada is introduced

1984 – Under the new Canada Health Act, the federal government commits to the principles of medicare and adds a fifth principle: accessibility. Heath practitioners can no longer bill extra above mandated fee schedules

1984 – Quebec Pension Plan is amended to allow pensions to begin between ages 60 and 70, and an Ottawa report calls for one national pension authority

1985 – Newfoundland establishes its first Pension Benefits Act

1986 – The Supreme Court of Canada addresses surplus in the watershed Dominion Stores case

1988 – Ontario’s Pension Benefits Guarantee Fund is hit with a $29-million insured claim by Massey Combine Corp.’s pension plan members

1989 – Prince Edward Island introduces its first Pension Benefits Act

1989 – The feds end the universality of Old Age Security, announcing clawbacks for every dollar of net income over a certain threshold

1989 – In Brooks vs. Canada Safeway, the Supreme Court rules that once an employer provides an employee health benefits program, exclusions based on pregnancy are discriminatory

1989 – Benefits Canada pour Québec (renamed Avantages) is founded

1990 – Quebec is the first province to mandate pension committees and locked-in retirement accounts

1990 – The finance minister announces an increase in the foreign property rule for pension fund investments, increasing the cap to 12% in 1990 and to 20% by 1994

1992 – Benefits Canada launches its annual Custody Report

1992 – Maclean Hunter acquires Canadian Investment Review, originally launched by Keith Ambachtsheer

1993 – In Dayco Canada Ltd. vs. National Automobile, Aerospace & Agricultural Workers Union of Canada, the Supreme Court rules that employee health benefits are vested entitlements for employees

1993 – Benefits Canada’s first annual Top DC Plans Report

1993 – Time Capsule Read: Retirees 1, Employers 0

1994 – Regulators in Canada and the U.S. seize control of the Confederation Insurance Company, which lost $29 million in 1993

1994 – Rogers Media acquires Benefits Canada magazine upon the takeover of Maclean Hunter Ltd.

1996 – Ontario’s Bill 26 and Quebec’s Bill 33 cut healthcare coverage, leaving seniors paying more for drugs

1996 – Retirees launch a claim against Bell Canada concerning the value of their GICs held by defunct Confed Lif; the case is settled when Bell guarantees investments

1996 – Canadian Investment Review’s first annual Global Investment Conference

1997 – Quebec is the first province to create a phased-in retirement option to allow individuals to collect a pension and work at the same time

1997 – Prime Minister Jean Chretien’s National Forum on Healthcare calls for a national pharmacare program

1997 – Canadian Investment Review goes online

1997 – Benefits Canada’s 20th anniversary marks a redesign of the magazine and a new website with customized online search tool

1998 – Kirby Commission on corporate governance recommends that pension plan boards communicate risk management and governance practices to pension plan holders

1998 – Ontario’s Financial Services Commission is established to regulate insurance, pension plans, loan and trust companies, credit unions, co-operative corporations, etc.

1998 – Benefits Canada’s first annual Communications Awards program

1998 – Maclean Hunter acquires the Canadian Pension Fund Investment Directory

1999 – The Supreme Court rules in Best vs. Best involving pension assets and how they should be divided in divorce

1999 – Canadian Investment Review’s first annual Risk Management Conference

2000 – All OAS and CPP benefits obligations are extended to same-sex common-law relationships

2000 – The feds raise the foreign property limit to 25% in 2000 and to 30% in 2001, and extend maternity benefits to 52 weeks

2000 – Benefits Canada’s first annual DC Plan Summit

2001 – Joint Forum of Financial Market Regulators releases Proposed Regulatory Principles for Capital Accumulation Plans

2001 – Benefits Canada’s Solutions in Drug Plan Management Conference

2001 – Canadian Investment Review’s first annual Investment Innovation Conference (formerly the Alternatives Investment Conference)

2002 – Two national reports on healthcare—the Senate Committee on Social Affairs and the Romanow Commission report—are released

2002 – Benefits Canada’s first annual Healthy Outcomes Conference

2002 – Benefits Canada’s 25th anniversary

2003 – Benefits Canada’s Face-to-Face conference series

2004 – The Supreme Court requires Monsanto to distribute surplus assets as of the date of the company’s partial windup in 1997

2004 – The Capital Accumulation Plan (CAP) Guidelines are released

2004 – Lifecycle funds (a.k.a. target date funds) gain popularity in Canada when fund rules change

2005 – Elimination of the foreign property rule

2006 – Benefits Canada’s first annual Drug Innovations Conference

2006 – Ontario’s Bill 102 inaugurates a new era in generic drug pricing reforms that influence similar policies in other jurisdictions

2006 – Benefits Canada’s first annual CAP Member Survey

2007 – Critical illness insurance becomes a new group insurance offering in Canada

2007 – Benefits Canada’s first annual Benefits Canada Awards, celebrating excellence in pensions and investments

2008 – The Ontario Expert Commission on Pensions and the Alberta/British Columbia Joint Expert Panel on Pension Standards each release final reports on pension reform

2008 – Canadian Institutional Investment Network (CIIN) launches

2008 – Benefits Canada’s first annual DC Investment Forum

2008 – Benefits Canada’s first annual Mental Health Summit

2008 – In Elaine Nolan et al vs. Kerry, the Supreme Court rules in favour of the employer, approving the use of DB plan surpluses to fund DC plan liabilities

2009 – Benefits Canada’s first annual DB Summit

2009 – Benefits Canada acquires Employee Benefit News Canada (EBNC)

2010 – Ontario’s Pension Benefits Amendment Act, 2010, and Securing Pension Benefits Now and for the Future Act, 2010, bring changes to surplus entitlement and withdrawal rules

2010 – Together with the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, Benefits Canada presents its first annual Benefits & Pension Summit

2010 – Manitoba Pension Benefits Amendment Act requires portability to be offered on termination of plan membership and enhanced disclosure requirements

2010 – Benefits Canada’s Employers Cancer Care Summit

2011 – Government of Canada repeals sections of the Canadian Human Rights Act and Canada Labour Code allowing employers to force employees to retire once they reach a certain age

2011 – Benefits Canada launches BCTV on BenefitsCanada.com

2011 – Changes made to Ontario drug benefits (many other provinces follow)

2011 – SmallBizAdvisor.ca launches

2011 – Nova Scotia’s Bill 96, the Pension Benefits Act, receives royal assent, repealing the province’s existing PBA

2011 – Benefits Canada Awards program expands to Workplace Health & Benefits Awards and Pension & Investment Awards

2011 – Workplace Health & Benefits Awards Gala Annual published

2011 – The feds introduce pooled registered pension plans to expand access to employee pension plans

2012 – The feds suggest changes to OAS to maintain the program’s sustainability

2012 – Benefits Canada celebrates its 35th anniversary!