Standing Technical Advisory Committee for Multi-Employer Pension Plans (MEPP)

Meeting summary

Date: Thursday, June 16, 2022
Time: 1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Location: 25 Sheppard Ave. West and Videoconference

This summary sets out the key points discussed at the June 16, 2022 meeting.

General items

  • Committee members continued to support working with FSRA on the impact of recent amendments to the Federal Income Tax Act and the impact on MEPPs.
  • A discussion group was proposed to consider records retention and electronic signatures in the age of digitalization.
  • A working group will explore MEPP-specific issues and solutions around missing members.
  • The group discussed that the Ontario Ministry of Finance would be looking at a target benefit framework.

Defined Benefit MEPP Leading Practice Benchmarking

  • FSRA updated the group on its progress to date and future work. The group gave feedback on this and their experiences to date. FSRA will provide copies of the benchmarking survey to the group.

Member-Focused Work

  • FSRA presented to the group on three upcoming member-focused initiatives: a paper on member communication and engagement, Pension Awareness Day and a Member Resource Centre for FSRA’s website.

Guidance Updates

  • FSRA updated the committee on guidance documents that are in progress.

Improving Regulatory Harmonization Across Canada

  • CAPSA recently released four guidelines for comment. FSRA will also separately launch a small survey on cyber security and consider a webinar in the fall.

Complaints Framework

  • FSRA will go out to the industry to better understand dispute resolution mechanisms using a cross-section of pension plans.

Committee Membership

  • The committee was advised that some committee members’ terms expire at the end of June 2022. Those expiring members were thanked for their service. FSRA informed the committee that it intends to call for new members to replenish the committee membership in the summer.

Next Meeting

The next meeting of the committee is scheduled for October 2022.

Attendance record

Invited/Attended

Company Name

Attendance Status
(A)ttended; (R)egrets; (S)ubstitute; (VC)Videoconference

Paul Martiniello

FSRA –Director, Relationship Management and Committee Co-Chair

A

Susan Bird

Multi-Employer Benefit Plan Council of Canada and Committee Co-Chair

VC

Alain Malaket

InBenefits

VC

Alex McKinnon

United Steelworkers

VC

Bob Tangney

N/A

A

Cameron McNeill

Segal

VC

Domenic Barbiero

Eckler Ltd.

VC

Doug LeFaive

GoldBlatt Partners

VC

James Pierlot

Blue Pier

VC

Joan Tanaka

Prudent Benefits Administration Services Inc.

VC

Kim MacPherson

TEIBAS

A

Kimberly Houston

The McAteer Group of Companies

A

Laura Brownell

CUPE

VC

Lindsay McLeod

Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP

VC

Luc Girard

Mercer

VC

Michael Mazzuca

Koskie Minsky

R

Mike Neheli

Manion, Wilkins & Associates Ltd.

VC

Andrew Fung, Dan Miles, Daniel Padro, David Bartucci, Jennifer Mullen, Jennifer Rook, Jesse Heath-Rawlings, Karima Shajani, Lester Wong, Marco Ciavatta, Mark Eagles, Michael Palozzi, Patrick Rettig, Rachit Agarwal, Stephanie Windsor, Vanessa Taylor

FSRA

VC

Anjali Raghunath, Jeff Sweeting

MOF

VC

Disponible en français sur demande.