News & Updates
Bill 36: Proposed Amendments to the Pension Benefits Act Ontario
January 17, 2023
On December 8, Ontario’s Progress on the Plan to Build Act (Budget Measures), 2022 — Bill 36 — received Royal Assent. In addition to a host of other measures, the bill proposes amendments to the following sections of the Ontario Pension Benefits Act:
- Collective Agreements: It adds a subsection that sets out the circumstances in which a collective agreement is considered to be one of the documents that create and support a plan (and therefore must be filed with the Ontario regulator). Those circumstances are:
- The plan is established pursuant to a collective agreement;
- The collective agreement incorporates the plan by reference in whole or in part; or
- The terms of the plan are set out in whole or in part in the collective agreement.
- Funding and Governance Policies: It adds a subsection that requires the documents that create and support a pension plan set out the funding policy and governance policy for the pension plan.
- Please note that this subsection initially only applies with respect to pension plans that provide target benefits.
- However, there are additional subsections that contemplate that the PBA will eventually be amended so that this requirement will apply with respect to all pension plans.
- Regulations: It adds a subsection that contemplates that the Regulations will eventually be amended to set out the requirements and information that the funding policy and governance policy must include (those regulations have not yet been released).
- Repeal Prior Act: It repeals Subsection 2(4) of Schedule 33 to the Stronger, Fairer Ontario Act (Budget Measures), 2017, which also tried to amend section 10 of the PBA, but (unlike Bill 36) this act would have immediately required all pension plans to implement a governance and funding policy.
The amendments noted above (except for #4) will only come into force on a day to be named by proclamation of the Lieutenant Governor.
To read the full details of Bill 36, click on more information below:
