August 24, 2015
Ten Plan members have sought a hearing before the Financial Service Tribunal (“Tribunal”) regarding the Notice of Intended Decision (“NOID”) issued by the Deputy Superintendent, Pensions of the Financial Services Commission of Ontario (“FSCO”) on July 17, 2015. The NOID gave notice of FSCO’s intent to approve the Surplus Withdrawal Application (“Application”) filed by Canada Life, in furtherance of implementing the court-approved Surplus Sharing Agreement (“SSA”).
The ten Plan members are asking the Tribunal to delay and/or refuse approval of the Application pending the request to FSCO that it confirm that all Plan benefit entitlements have been satisfied; and in particular, that commuted value Plan payments have been properly calculated. It is their position that the commuted values offered by Canada Life were too low. The Superintendent of Pensions has ruled in favour Canada Life’s position that the commuted values have been properly calculated, as required by the Pension Benefits Act.
An application for party status on behalf of the thousands of members that voted in favour of the SSA will be filed by Koskie Minsky LLP.
As a result of the requests for hearing filed, the final steps in implementing the SSA will be delayed by an indeterminate amount of time. Surplus payments under the SSA are conditional on approval of the Application. The process before the Tribunal will involve several steps, the duration of which is unknown. We will continue to report on the Tribunal proceeding as it develops. Information about the Tribunal proceeding may be accessed at the following link:
http://www.fstontario.ca/en/hearings/Pages/p0647-2015.aspx
