IPF Canada Grow-in Benefits/Opt-out Notice

International Pension Fund

JOURNAL: ISSUE 1 - 2013

The following notice is being provided to IPF Canada participants in the Province of Ontario as required under the Ontario Pension Benefits Act. If you have any questions please contact David F. Stupar at the Fund Office: 

Grow-in benefits are enhanced pension benefits that may be payable under Ontario's Pension Benefits Act (the "PBA") to qualifying pension plan members in certain circumstances. 

Before July 2012, Ontario's PBA required that grow-in benefits be paid to Ontario members of a pension plan who were affected by a wind-up of that plan, in whole or in part, and whose age plus years of service on the wind-up date equalled at least 55. As such, grow-in benefits were not available to a member of an ongoing multi-employer pension plan such as IPF Canada. Ontario and Nova Scotia are the only provinces that provide for the payment of grow-in benefits, but Nova Scotia does not provide for grow-in benefits in the case of a multi-employer pension plan.

Effective July 1, 2012, Ontario's PBA was amended to expand the circumstances in which grow-in benefits may be payable and to permit the administrator of a multi-employer pension plan, such as the IPF, to elect to exclude the plan from the grow-in benefit provisions of Ontario's PBA. As permitted under Ontario's PBA, the Board of Trustees of the IPF, in consultation with Fund counsel and actuary, elected to exclude the Plan from the grow-in benefit provisions of Ontario's PBA. This election is effective February 1, 2013. Notice of this election has been filed with the Ontario Superintendent of Financial Services and the Alberta Superintendent of Pensions.