2018 Ontario Budget: Impact On Pensions And Benefits

On March 28, 2018, the Ontario provincial government released its 2018 Budget: A Plan for Care and Opportunity (the "2018 Budget") and introduced for first reading Bill 31, Plan for Care and Opportunity Act (Budget Measures) (the "2018 Budget Act"). In this post, we highlight the key measures in the 2018 Budget that relate to pensions and benefits.

Pension Funding Reforms

As readers with a defined benefit pension plan will know, in May 2017, the Ontario government introduced a new funding framework for defined benefit pension plans which includes, among other features, the elimination of the requirement to fund a defined benefit pension plan on a solvency basis if the funded status of the plan is 85% or greater. In late 2017 and early 2018, descriptions of the proposed supporting regulations were posted for public comment. In the 2018 Budget, the Ontario government indicated that it is considering the feedback it received on the draft regulations as part of the