September 2017

September 2017

Pensions – The Pension Benefits Amendment Regulations, 2017

September 1, 2017 –  Effective August 25, 2017, the government has amended The Pension Benefits Regulations, 1993 to introduce a new regulatory regime for certain pension plans and make other miscellaneous amendments. 

The Regulations, as amended, introduce the term “limited liability plan” (LLP).  LLPs are defined benefit pension plans which are subject to subsection 40(5) of The Pension Benefits Act, 1992 (the Act), but do not include Specified Plans (see section 36.7 of the Regulations for a definition of a Specified Plan).  The Regulations were amended to implement the following changes for LLPs: 

• Remove the requirement to fund solvency deficiencies;
• Require provision for adverse deviations to be funded on the current service cost;
• Require plan administrators to provide additional communication to plan members;
• Restrict increases to pensions in pay;
• Allow LLP pension plan contracts to be amended to provide the option to calculate commuted values (CV) based on the plan’s going concern assumptions and to permanently decrease the CV to the funded position of the plan; and
• Provide that the transfer deficiency rules apply only to benefits being paid under a defined benefit provision that is subject to the Canadian Institute of Actuaries recommendations for discount rates used for commuted values.

In addition, the Regulations were amended to:

1. Clarify the treatment of funds held in a locked-in retirement account (LIRA) and prescribed registered retirement income fund (pRRIF) where the funds originated from a pooled retirement pension plan (PRPP);
2. Update Form 0.1 and Form 3 to clarify each form’s use with the PRPP framework.

For more information, please contact:

Pensions Division
Financial and Consumer Affairs Authority of Saskatchewan
Suite 601, 1919 Saskatchewan Drive
Regina, Saskatchewan S4P 4H2
Phone:  (306) 787-7650
Fax:  (306) 798-4425

• Explanation PBAR 2017