The Ontario government has received the final report from the Expert Commission on Pensions, the Ministry of Finance announced Thursday.

The province said it seeking feedback on the report with a written comment period ending Feb. 27, 2009, and is committed to introducing legislation.

In its report, the commission made a number of broad recommendations for reinvigorating Ontario’s pension system. It called on the province to:

> create a “pension champion” — a new government agency that would assume responsibility for collecting and disseminating reliable information about the pension system, for thinking creatively about new pension strategies and policies, and for working with stakeholders to improve the pension system;

> facilitate the development of large plans, encourage cooperation among small- and medium-sized plans, and to promote target benefit plans that might be affordable for Ontarians who do not now have pension coverage;

> investigate the advantages and disadvantages of expanding the Canada Pension Plan, or creating a comparable provincial plan, so as to enhance pension coverage, control costs and improve benefit portability;

> form a new Pension Community Advisory Council, led by the Pension Champion, to advise government on all significant policy initiatives and to serve as a forum for the exchange of views;

> draft pension legislation in such a way as to facilitate the introduction of new plan designs as well as new regulatory initiatives; and

> support efforts to avoid further divergence in pension policy, legislation and regulation among Canadian jurisdictions, and seek cooperation with other provinces to secure necessary changes in federal tax and insolvency legislation.

Although the report was commissioned well-before current global economic turmoil, the province said it “is taking immediate action to strengthen and protect the viability of Ontario’s pension system by increasing the capacity of the Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO), the pension regulator, to oversee pension plans.”

To help plans manage solvency funding issues arising from recent market uncertainty, the Ontario government is actively considering temporary solvency relief measures, it said.

The government is also working on this issue with its federal and provincial partners, through the Federal-Provincial Working Group on Pensions, announced
by the Finance ministers on Nov 3.

“Global financial uncertainties have posed serious challenges for pension plans and we are taking action to address the effect of market uncertainty on
pensions,” said Finance Minister Dwight Duncan in a release.

The Expert Commission on Pensions was established in 2006. Its mandate was to examine the legislation related to the funding of defined benefit pension plans and related issues in Ontario. Harry Arthurs, former Dean of Osgoode Hall Law School and former President of York University, served as Commission Chair.

IE