Relief Is Here: N.S. Registered Defined Benefit Plans Get Temporary Solvency Funding Relief

After years of low interest rates, and correspondingly high solvency liabilities, there's growing recognition that the solvency funding model is broken. Nova Scotia has now followed other Canadian provinces and territories offering either temporary solvency relief (as in Ontario and B.C.) or moving away from solvency funding entirely (as in Quebec and currently being pursued in Ontario). Effective August 8, 2017, the N.S. government implemented amendments to the N.S. Pension Benefits Regulations to give N.S. registered defined benefit pension plans temporary solvency relief:

Changes. The solvency amortization period for N.S. registered defined benefit plans is extending from five to fifteen years, and they have the ability to reamortize existing solvency deficits from the current five year payment schedule to a 15 year payment schedule.