2021 Federal Budget: Selected Pensions, Benefits And Executive Compensation Measures

On April 19, 2021, the federal government tabled its 2021 budget (2021 Budget), which included a number of provisions related to pensions, benefits and executive compensation, as summarized below.

FIXING CONTRIBUTION ERRORS IN DEFINED CONTRIBUTION PENSION PLANS

The 2021 Budget proposes to provide more flexibility to plan administrators of defined contribution registered pension plans (RPPs) to correct for both under-contributions and over-contributions. The proposals would permit certain types of errors to be corrected via additional contributions to an employee's account under a defined contribution RPP to compensate for an under-contribution error made in any of the preceding five years, subject to a dollar limit. The proposals would also permit plan administrators to correct for pension over-contribution errors in respect of an employee for any of the five years prior to the year in which the excess amount is refunded to the employee or employer, as the case