UofT Pension Plan Explainer

All questions you wanted to know and some more

The goal of this website is to provide information about various issues related to the pension reform at the University of Toronto. If you want to comment on anything about this website, edit it, improve organization, add content, correct inaccuracies, comment at the bottom of each website, use the DISCUSSION FORUM, or contact the owner .

If you don’t want to read much, just read this.

The current plan is in trouble. The problem is a combination of a significant deficit and the government policy that uses regulations to gently push the University towards a pension reform. There does not seem to be an immediate need to act. However, if nothing is done, it is possible that at some point in the future, the University will be forced (not so gently anymore) to replace the current plan with a much less attractive alternative (we refer to it as a possible threat-point). Whether it happens or not, it depends on the resolution of relevant economic and political uncertainties.

There is no formal proposal of reform yet. There is a new plan that may end up being a formal proposal, with some details here and there changed. When the formal proposal is presented, the decision will be whether to accept or reject the proposal, with no opportunity to decide on each separate feature of the new plan. Time to learn and to speak out your opinion is now before the negotiations start.

The main differences between the current plan and the new plan are

• • the current plan is single-employer and single-sponsor, which means that the single-employer (i.e., the UofT) is the sole guarantor for the financial health of the plan, and

  • the new plan is multiple-employer and multi-sponsor, which means that the responsibility (contributions, management, and, most importantly, risk) is shared equally between employers and employees. The new plan will associate multiple universities (at this moment, the UofT, Queen’s, and Guelph, are considered, but other universities might join).

  • Both plans have similar defined benefits.

  • The contributions and benefits provided by the new plan will be more volatile and they will be affected the plan's financial health. Additionally, the benefits earned under the new plan have a weaker protection relative to the current plan (the benefits acquired under the current plan, and their security is not going to change.)

  • An important issue, particularly for younger members, will be how the old plan liabilities are treated. The way it is proposed now, the University wants to off-load its risk for the old plan liabilities onto employees in 15 years. That is unfair, particularly to younger members of the plan (whose contributions will be used in 15 years to cover the old plan deficits.).

There are different consequences for different groups of plan members: retirees, senior members (<15 years till retirement), or younger members (>15 years till retirement). See How will I be affected?.

Website plan

If you have a specific question, or if you want to learn more methodically, we organized the questions in few areas:

• 1. What is the current plan?

  2. What is the problem?

  3. What is the new plan?

  4. How will I be affected?.

  5. What is the process? Will anybody ask me about opinion/permission? Maybe - see ratification.

Additional information can be found on the UTFA website.