The Government of Manitoba recently made changes to its pension legislation.
Effective Jan. 1, 2012, Manitoba’s Pension Benefits Regulation 39/2010 has been amended to permit the use of letters of credit to meet funding solvency requirements for employers with DB pension plans, increase the fees for applications for plan registration and annual information returns, and prescribe administrative penalties for contraventions of the legislation.
Also effective Jan. 1, 2012, Manitoba has introduced the Special Payments Relief Regulation, 2011, which permits certain existing solvency deficiencies under a DB plan to be consolidated and amortized over a 10-year period, conditional on the funding payments being up to date and member and beneficiary buy-in. This regulation applies to the consolidated deficiency reported in the first valuation report between Dec. 30, 2011 and Jan. 2, 2014.
Information on these legislative changes is available in the Government of Manitoba’s Policy Bulletin #10 and Update #11-08.