Three employers in Ontario have joined the C$10.8 billion ($7.9 billion) Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology Pension Plan, Toronto, in a move that brings CAAT's "DBplus" provisions to more than 4,000 new employees in the province.
Effective July 1, Toronto-based Postmedia Network and The Canadian Press, as well as London Cross Cultural Learning Centre, London, Ontario, became the newest organizations to join CAAT's DBplus plan design, which has attracted seven new employers since it launched a year ago, a news release from CAAT said Tuesday.
The first outside employer to merge with CAAT was the C$100 million Royal Ontario Museum Pension Plan, Toronto, in 2016.
Meanwhile, Tostar Corp., Toronto, was the first employer to join the DBplus plan design in October, which offers a "guaranteed lifetime pension with conditional inflation protection, survivor pension benefits and early retirement options, with the certainty of a fixed cost for both employees and employers," the news release said.
CAAT can accept new members from public, private and not-for-profit sectors in Canada under Ontario regulations that allow single-employer pension funds of all kinds to be merged with a multiemployer plan like CAAT.
With the move, Postmedia, which has some 3,400 employees and pension plan members, and The Canadian Press, which has 600 employees and pension plan members, will merge their defined benefit plan liabilities and assets into CAAT, the news release said.
The Canadian Press’ two defined benefit plans have over $100 million in assets while Postmedia has six defined benefits plans with about $500 million in assets, a CAAT spokeswoman said in an email.
London Cross Cultural Centre had a group registered retirement savings plan prior to joining the CAAT plan, a spokeswoman said Tuesday in an email. There will be no merger of past benefits, a CAAT spokeswoman said. “Employees will have the same option as all members of CAAT of ‘buying back’ past benefits associated with prior years of employment,” she said.
Under the terms of each merger, active and retired members will receive pensions based on their respective plans' provisions for their service accrued before the effective date of the merger, and pensions based on CAAT's DBplus provisions on contributions made after that date, according to CAAT.
