Manitoba has released proposed amendments to the Pension Benefits Regulations that result from changes made to the Pension Benefits Act in 2005 through Bill 10, according to a Mercer Communiqué.

Under the proposed regulations, employer-sponsored pension plans that have 50 or more members must be administered by a pension committee. The plan must set out the rights and obligations of the pension committee and must also provide that
• at least one voting active member is appointed or elected by the active members, and
• at least one voting non-active member is appointed or elected by the non-active members.

The original proposed requirement that one additional non-voting member be appointed or elected by the active and non-active members has been removed.

Pension committee members must be members of the plan. In the case of union representation, the plan must permit the union to appoint a person in accordance with the union’s constitution instead of providing for a person to be elected by the active members.

Under the proposed regulations, employers will have the right to appoint as many additional committee members as they wish— theoretically, giving the employer a majority of representatives. However, this is at the discretion of the plan sponsor.

Use of surplus for contribution holidays
The proposed regulations will permit surplus to be used to reduce employer contributions, unless expressly prohibited by the terms of the plan, trust agreement or collective bargaining agreement. The rule will apply only if, at the most recent actuarial review date, the following conditions are satisfied:
• the going-concern ratio of the plan was at least 1.05, and
• the solvency ratio of the plan was at least 1.05.

Also, the regulations will no longer permit the Locked-in Retirement Income Fund (LRIF) as a prescribed retirement benefits vehicle, and all amounts with a LRIF will be required to be transferred to a Life Income Fund. They would also permit a plan to have a provision to unlock up to 50% of a member’s benefits directly from the plan.

Comments on the proposed regulations may be submitted until Aug. 15, 2009, by email to pensions@gov.mb.ca.

To comment on this story, contact us.