Toronto Civic Employees’ Pension Plan Surplus – June 26, 2020
June 26, 2020
We are pleased to report that this matter is proceeding to the final regulatory approval stage. On June 25, 2020, the City of Toronto served its Notice of Employer Surplus Withdrawal Application (the “Notice”) on Koskie Minsky LLP (“KM”), in its capacity as counsel to members of the Civic Plan surplus sharing group who retained KM to represent them in this matter. A copy of this Notice can be found by clicking this link.
As is set out in the Notice, the City of Toronto is proceeding to file a Surplus Withdrawal Application with Ontario’s pension regulator, the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (“FSRA”), and we are advised that this important step has been completed today (June 26, 2020). At the same time, the City of Toronto also filed an actuarial valuation report on the wind-up of the Civic Pension Plan.
As the City of Toronto reported to you in its letter of March 23, 2020, FSRA has indicated that it will prioritize its review of the application, and we are hopeful that approval for the application will be issued by the regulator by the end of August, 2020, following which surplus distributions to Civic Plan members may proceed. We will shortly be writing a letter to FSRA to encourage the prioritization of FSRA’s review. It is, however, important to note that this timing could change, both depending on the actual length of the regulatory review, as well as any potential hearing requests to the Ontario Financial Services Tribunal, should any members of the Civic Plan object to the proposed distribution. In addition, despite previously communicated timelines, the regulator’s review may also be impacted by Ontario’s existing emergency order in response to COVID-19.
We will continue to post periodic updates to this website to keep members advised as this matter proceeds.
