EMPLOYMENT PENSION PLANS ACT

Chapter E‑8

Table of Contents

                1       Interpretation

                2       Interpretation re employment outside Alberta
and designated jurisdictions

                3       Application to Plans administered by Crown

                4       Application to Teachers’ Pension Plans

Part 1
Administration

                5       Appointment and functions, etc., of Superintendent
and Deputy Superintendent

                6       Reciprocal governmental agreements

                7       Fees

                8       Directions for compliance

                9       Superintendent’s authority to extend time limits

              10       Administrators of specified multi‑employer plans

              11       Administration and organization of multi‑unit plans

              12       Administrators of single employer plans

           12.1       Removal of administrator and appointment of
temporary administrator

              13       General responsibilities of administrators

              14       Reports and returns by administrators

              15       Disclosure of information

              16       Retention of records

              17       Effect of trust on participating employers

              18       Information from non‑administrator employer

Part 2
Filing, Registration and Amendment

              19       Registration of plans

           19.1       Relocation of registration to Alberta

              20       Amendment of plans

              21       Administration of unregistered plan or amendment

              22       Retroactivity of plan or amendment

              23       Transfer agreements

              24       Cancellation of registration

              25       Notification of refusal or cancellation of registration

              26       Appeal to the Court

Part 3
Contractual Provisions in Pension Plans

              27       Contractual requirements of pension plan

              28       General subject‑matter requirements

              29       Entitlement of employees to join plan

              30       Cessation and suspension of membership

              31       Vesting based on years of continuous employment or membership

              32       Vesting at pensionable age

              33       Vesting on termination of plan

              34       Amount and terms of pension vested

              35       Locking in

              36       Interest, gains and losses on member contributions

              37       Minimum employer contributions for funding of pension

              38       Portability of commuted value of benefits

              39       Pre‑pension commencement death benefits

              40       Post‑pension commencement survivor benefits

              41       Surviving pension partner’s change in status

              42       Ancillary benefits

              43       Adjustments in pension for CPP, QPP and OAS

              44       Age provisions in pension plans

              45       Payment or transfer of contributions or benefits

              46       Variations in benefits

              47       Further variation - for reduction in working time

              48       Funding and solvency requirements

              49       Fund holders and custodians

              50       Remitting of contributions

              51       Trust arrangement for contributions

              52       Deemed trust for unremitted contributions

              53       Registration of claim for contributions

              54       Investment requirements

              55       Benefits and assets on winding up

              56       Participating employer’s withdrawal from SMEPP

              57       Fiscal year of plan

Part 4
Division and Distribution of Benefits
on Relationship Breakdown

              58       Interpretation

              59       Prevalence of this Part in relation to benefits

              60       Application

              61       Matrimonial property orders

              62       Division and distribution of benefits

              63       Valuation of benefits

              64       Locking in of non‑member‑pension partner’s share

              65       Bar against further claims

              66       Adjustment of member’s share

              67       Application to Court for clarification, etc.

              68       Fees

              69       Assignment and protection from execution, etc.

           69.1       Filing of documents with administrator

Part 5
Termination, Winding‑up and
Predecessor and Successor Plans

              70       Events constituting termination

              71       Superintendent’s authority to declare termination of plan

              72       Notification of termination or winding‑up

              73       Payments to meet solvency requirements

              74       Effect of termination on assets

              75       Entitlements on partial termination

              76       Commencement of winding‑up

              77       Allocation and distribution of assets

           77.1       Missing persons

              78       Superintendent’s authority to appoint administrator

              79       Costs of winding‑up

              80       Predecessor and successor plans and employers

Part 6
Miscellaneous

              81       Effect of plan amendment

              82       Transfer of assets

              83       Surplus and excess assets

              84       Return of contributions

              85       Prohibition and effect of assignment, etc.

              85       Prohibition against assignment, etc.

           85.1       Exemption from attachment, etc.

           85.2       Nullity of certain agreements, etc.

           85.3       Income and asset testing under other legislation

              86       Evidence of entitlement to benefit

              87       Regulations

              88       Service of documents

              89       Proof of date of service

              90       Inspection and production of documents and
oral interviews

              91       Civil enforcement

              92       Offences and penalties

              93       Limitation period for prosecution

              94       Transitional

HER MAJESTY, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, enacts as follows:

Interpretation

1(1)  In this Act,

                                 (a)    “additional voluntary contributions” means contributions made by a member to a pension plan that are additional to member required contributions, except optional ancillary contributions and contributions whose payment, under the terms of the plan, imposes on the employer an obligation to make concurrent additional contributions, and includes compounded interest on those additional voluntary contributions and, where any such money has been transferred from the plan, compounded interest on any such money;

                                 (b)    “administrator” means

                                           (i)    subject to subclause (ii), in relation to

                                                 (A)    a specified multi‑employer plan, the body referred to in section 10(1),

                                                  (B)    a multi‑unit plan, the body referred to in section 11(1), or

                                                  (C)    any other plan, the board of trustees referred to in section 12 or, if there is no such board, the employer,

                                             or

                                          (ii)    where a person has been appointed administrator of a plan by the Superintendent under section 12.1(1) or 78(1) or (2), that person;

                                 (c)    “ancillary benefit” means a benefit of a kind provided pursuant to any clause of section 42(1);

                                 (d)    “assets”, in relation to a pension plan, includes its surplus assets or excess assets, as the case may be;

                                 (e)    “benefit” means a pension or any other benefit under a pension plan, and includes a return of contributions to or in respect of a member or former member, any payment in a series of payments that constitutes a benefit and future entitlements to any such benefit, but does not include a refund of surplus assets;

                              (e.1)    “bridging benefits” means a series of periodic payments that are additional to a pension and

                                           (i)    are provided to a former member who commenced a pension before attaining the age of 65 years, and

                                          (ii)    are payable until and only until that age is attained;

                                  (f)    “certified copy” means, in relation to a document, a copy of the document certified to be a true copy by a person authorized so to certify it;

                                 (g)    “collective agreement” has the meaning assigned to it by the Labour Relations Code;

                                 (h)    “commuted value” means, in relation to benefits that a person has a present or future entitlement to receive

                                           (i)    under a defined benefit provision, the actuarial present value of those benefits determined, as of the time in question,

                                                 (A)    on the basis of actuarial assumptions and methods that are adequate and appropriate and in accordance with generally accepted actuarial principles,

                                                  (B)    in accordance with the conditions, if any, that are prescribed, and

                                                  (C)    in a manner that is acceptable to the Superintendent,

                                                  or the money representing that value, or

                                          (ii)    under a defined contribution provision, a locked‑in retirement account or a retirement income arrangement, the money representing the value of the person’s account as of the time in question;

                                  (i)    “Court” means the Court of Queen’s Bench;

                               (i.1)    “custodian” means, subject to subsection (1.1), a financial institution to the extent that it is lawfully acting under an agreement with an administrator or fund holder or both that

                                           (i)    delegates to it the holding of the pension fund on behalf of the fund holder and in trust for the members and former members, whether or not the agreement allows any further subdelegation by the financial institution of the holding to subcustodians, and

                                          (ii)    does not, by virtue of any such subdelegation, purport to relieve that financial institution of any obligation or duty imposed on it as the custodian by law or equity;

                                  (j)    “defined benefit provision” means a provision of a pension plan under which benefits are determined in any way other than that described in clause (k);

                                 (k)    “defined contribution provision” means a provision of a pension plan under which benefits are determined solely by reference to what is provided by

                                           (i)    contributions made on a member’s behalf by the member’s employer and member required contributions, and

                                          (ii)    interest and any other amounts applied in respect of a member or former member;

                                  (l)    “designated jurisdiction” means a jurisdiction referred to in any clause of subsection (1.2);

                               (l.1)    “designation of beneficiary” means a designation pursuant to section 47 of the Trustee Act of a person to receive a benefit payable under a pension scheme on the death of a participant, within the meaning of that section, of that scheme, and “designated beneficiary” shall be construed accordingly;

                               (l.2)    “disability benefits” means a series of periodic payments provided to a former member who has become totally or partially disabled prior to attaining pensionable age;

                                (m)    “employee” means an individual who is employed to do work or provide a service in Alberta or in a designated jurisdiction and is in receipt of or entitled to remuneration for the work or service;

                                 (n)    “employer” means the person or the organization, whether incorporated or not, from whom a person employed by the first mentioned person or by that organization receives remuneration, and includes any or all of the participating employers of a specified multi‑employer plan or, if the plan so provides, a multi‑unit plan in whose employment that person has been;

                                 (o)    “employment” means

                                           (i)    in relation to a specified multi‑employer plan, an employee’s employment with an employer

                                                 (A)    for which the employer is contractually required to make contributions to that plan on the employee’s behalf, or

                                                  (B)    in respect of which benefits are otherwise provided under the plan,

                                             and

                                          (ii)    in any other case or, notwithstanding subclause (i), where the Superintendent gives the Superintendent’s approval under section 31(4) in respect of a specified multi‑employer plan, an employee’s employment with the employer;

                                 (p)    “excess assets” means, with respect to the prescribed assets and liabilities of a pension plan that is not being wound up, the amount, if any, by which those assets exceed those liabilities;

                                 (q)    “excess contributions” means the excess, if any, of the value of a member’s contributions made in respect of a plan’s defined benefit provisions in the relevant period, with interest, over 1/2 of the commuted value of the pension accruing from those provisions in respect of membership in that period;

                              (q.1)    “file”, used with reference to the filing of a matrimonial property order or agreement with a plan’s administrator, means file under section 69.1;

                                  (r)    “former Act” means the Pension Benefits Act, RSA 1980 cP‑3;

                                 (s)    “former member” means, in relation to a pension plan, an employee or former employee who has terminated membership or commenced a pension or whose plan has been terminated, and who retains a present or future entitlement to receive a benefit under the plan;

                                  (t)    “fund holder” means the person or combination of persons referred to in section 49(1);

                               (t.1)    “included employment” means included employment within the meaning of and regulated by the Pension Benefits Standards Act (Canada);

                                 (u)    “initial qualification date” means

                                           (i)    in respect of employment in Alberta, January 1, 1967, and

                                          (ii)    in respect of employment in a designated jurisdiction, the date provided for in the respective clause of subsection (1.2);

                                 (v)    “insurance business” means a corporation authorized to carry on life insurance business in Canada;

                                (w)    “interest” means interest, gains and losses provided for under section 36(1) to (5);

                                 (x)    “locked‑in retirement account” means an RRSP that meets the prescribed conditions;

                              (x.1)    “matrimonial property agreement” means a written agreement that provides for the division and distribution of a benefit and that meets the requirements of section 37, including being enforceable under section 38, of the Matrimonial Property Act;

                              (x.2)    “matrimonial property order” means a matrimonial property order within the meaning of the Matrimonial Property Act, or a similar order enforceable in Alberta of a court outside Alberta, that affects the division and distribution of a benefit;

                                 (y)    “member” means, in relation to a pension plan that has not been terminated, an employee or former employee who has made or is required to make contributions to the plan or on whose behalf the employer is or was required by the plan to make contributions to it and who has not terminated membership or commenced a pension;

                              (y.1)    “member required contributions” means contributions by a member that the member was or is required to make to attain a benefit and whose payment, under the terms of the plan, imposes on the employer an obligation to make concurrent contributions;

                              (y.2)    “member‑pension partner” means, in relation to the pension plan in question, the pension partner who is or was the member in question, and “non‑member‑pension partner” means the other pension partner;

                              (y.3)    “money”, where appropriate, includes other assets;

                                 (z)    “multi‑unit plan” means a pension plan administered for employees of 2 or more employers and designated by the Superintendent as a multi‑unit plan;

                               (aa)    “non‑administrator employer” means an employer who is not an administrator;

                            (aa.1)    “optional ancillary benefits” means the ancillary benefits referred to in clause (bb);

                              (bb)    “optional ancillary contributions” means contributions made voluntarily by a member under a defined benefit provision that are additional to member required contributions and as a consequence of which ancillary benefits selected for provision under the plan must be provided with respect to the member, and includes compounded interest on those contributions and, where any such money has been transferred from the plan, compounded interest on any such money;

                           (bb.1)    “other plan documents” or “another plan document” means, in relation to a pension plan, the documents or a document referred to in section 19(1)(a)(ii), (iii) and (iv) or any of them, as the case may be;

                               (cc)    “participating employer” means,

                                           (i)    in relation to a specified multi‑employer plan, an employer who is required under a collective agreement or participation agreement, or

                                          (ii)    in relation to a multi‑unit plan, an employer who is required under a participation agreement referred to in section 11(2),

                                          to make contributions to that plan;

                            (cc.1)    “participation agreement” means, in relation to a specified multi‑employer plan or a multi‑unit plan, an agreement between an employer or employers on the one hand and the administrator on the other that meets the prescribed conditions;

                              (dd)    “pension” means a benefit in the form of a series of payments that continues for the life of a former member, whether or not it is afterwards continued to any other person, and includes future entitlements to any such payments, but does not include ancillary benefits unless they become part of a pension as a result of the application of section 42(2);

                               (ee)    “pension commencement” means the time by reference to which a person commences to receive a pension under a pension plan;

                                (ff)    “pension fund” means the assets of a pension plan;

                             (ff.1)    “pension partner” means, in relation to another person,

                                           (i)    a person who, at the relevant time, was married to that other person and had not been living separate and apart from that other person for 3 or more consecutive years, or

                                          (ii)    if there is no person to whom subclause (i) applies, a person who, immediately preceding the relevant time, had lived with that other person in a conjugal relationship

                                                 (A)    for a continuous period of at least 3 years, or

                                                  (B)    of some permanence, if there is a child of the relationship by birth or adoption;

                              (gg)    “pension plan” or “plan” means a plan, scheme or arrangement organized and administered to provide pensions for employees and former employees and under which, except in the case of a supplemental pension plan, the employer is or, in the case of a terminated plan, was required to make contributions to the plan on behalf of the members, and includes the pension fund of a plan but does not include

                                           (i)    an employees profit sharing plan or a deferred profit sharing plan within the meaning of sections 144 and 147 respectively of the tax Act,

                                          (ii)    an arrangement to provide a retiring allowance within the meaning of subsection 248(1) of the tax Act, or

                                         (iii)    any other prescribed plan, scheme or arrangement;

                              (hh)    “pensionable age” means, in relation to a pension plan, the age or the date referred to in section 44(1);

                           (hh.1)    “plan for connected individuals” means a plan for specified individuals whose only members are specified individuals who were connected at any time in the year with an employer who participates in the plan for the purposes of the prescribed provisions of the tax Act;

                                 (ii)    “plan for specified individuals” means a pension plan whose only members are specified individuals for the purposes of the prescribed provisions of the tax Act;

                                 (jj)    “prescribed” means prescribed or otherwise provided for by the regulations;

                               (kk)    “records” includes

                                           (i)    accounts, books, files, returns, statements, reports, financial documents or other memorandums of financial or non‑financial information, whether in writing or in electronic form or represented or reproduced by any other means, and

                                          (ii)    the results of the recording of details of electronic data processing systems and programs to illustrate what the systems and programs do and how they operate;

                                 (ll)    “registration” means registration under Part 2 of a pension plan or of an amendment to a plan, and includes registration under the former Act;

                             (mm)    “remuneration” means wages, salary, pay, commission or other remuneration;

                              (nn)    “retirement income arrangement” means

                                           (i)    a retirement income fund within the meaning of the tax Act that is registered under that Act and that meets the prescribed conditions, or

                                          (ii)    any other arrangement prescribed to be a retirement income arrangement;

                              (oo)    “RRSP” means a retirement savings plan within the meaning of the tax Act that is registered under that Act;

                              (pp)    “solvency tests” means the tests for the solvency of pension plans referred to in section 48(2);

                              (qq)    “specified multi‑employer plan” means a pension plan administered for employees of 2 or more employers and designated by the Superintendent as a specified multi‑employer plan;

                                (rr)    repealed 2002 cA‑4.5 s33;

                               (ss)    “Superintendent” means the Superintendent of Pensions;

                                (tt)    “supplemental pension plan” means a pension plan, initial and continuing membership in which depends by way of condition precedent on membership in another plan, the first‑mentioned pension plan being supplemental to that other plan;

                              (uu)    “surplus assets” means, with respect to a pension plan that is being wound up, the amount, if any, by which the plan’s assets exceed its liabilities, as stated in the report filed under section 76(3) or, where applicable, the more recent report filed under section 76(4);

                              (vv)    “tax Act” means the Income Tax Act (Canada), and includes the regulations under that Act;

                             (ww)    “termination”, when used in relation to a pension plan, means an event provided to be a termination of the plan by section 70 or 71, to the extent that such an event affects members and former members;

                                (xx)    “termination of membership” means

                                           (i)    in relation to a member of a specified multi‑employer plan and subject to subclauses (ii) and (iii), the beginning of any period of 2 consecutive fiscal years of the plan in which it transpires, at the end of that period, that the member did not complete at least 350 hours of employment,

                                          (ii)    in relation to a member of a supplemental pension plan, including a supplemental multi‑unit plan, the termination of the member’s membership in the plan to which it is supplemental, and

                                         (iii)    in relation to a member of any other plan or where the Superintendent gives an approval under section 31(4) in respect of a specified multi‑employer plan but subject to subsection (2.1), the cessation by the member of employment for which the employer is required by that plan to make contributions to that plan on the member’s behalf,

                                          and, in relation to a member of a specified multi‑employer plan, includes the return of all the member’s contributions, with interest, under section 35(8) or (9) or the transfer of the whole of the commuted value of the pension under section 38(3) or (6);

                              (yy)    “this Act” means this Act and the regulations under it;

                                (zz)    “trade union” has the meaning assigned to it by the Labour Relations Code;

                             (aaa)    “winding‑up” means, in relation to a pension plan that has been terminated, the process of distributing the assets of the plan;

                            (bbb)    “Year’s Maximum Pensionable Earnings” has the same meaning as in the Canada Pension Plan (Canada);

                             (ccc)    “years of continuous employment” means, subject to section 31(4),

                                           (i)    in relation to a member of a specified multi‑employer plan, fiscal years of the plan in each of which the member has completed at least 350 hours of employment,

                                          (ii)    in relation to a member of a multi‑unit plan, years of employment for a continuous period of time with one employer or, if the plan so provides, with more than one employer, including any break in such employment provided for in subsection (3.1), and

                                         (iii)    in relation to any other plan, years of employment for a continuous period of time including, except where an actual cessation of employment has occurred, any period not exceeding 52 consecutive weeks during which a person who immediately before the commencement of the period was in the employment of the employer is not doing work or providing a service for that employer for remuneration and after the expiry of which the person is again in the employment of that employer,

                                          and, where a member has at any time terminated membership in one plan to which the employer was required to make contributions on the member’s behalf due to the member becoming a member of another plan to which that employer is so required to make contributions, includes, in relation to each of those plans, the aggregate of the years of continuous employment while a member of those plans.

(1.1)  Where the fund holder and the custodian are one and the same person, the administrator must be a party to the agreement referred to in subsection (1)(i.1).

(1.2)  The following are the Canadian jurisdictions, referred to in subsection (1)(l) and (u)(ii), in which there is in force legislation substantially similar to this Act, and the initial qualification date for each of them is the date specified:

                                 (a)    Ontario:  January 1, 1965;

                                 (b)    Quebec:  January 1, 1966;

                                 (c)    The Northwest Territories:  October 1, 1967;

                                 (d)    The Yukon Territory:  October 1, 1967;

                                 (e)    Saskatchewan:  January 1, 1969;

                                  (f)    Manitoba:  July 1, 1976;

                                 (g)    Nova Scotia:  January 1, 1977;

                                 (h)    Newfoundland and Labrador:  January 1, 1985;

                                  (i)    New Brunswick:  December 31, 1991;

                                  (j)    British Columbia:  January 1, 1993;

                                 (k)    Nunavut:  April 1, 1999;

                                  (l)    Canada, to the extent that the pension regime in question covers included employment:  March 23, 1967.

(2)  For the purposes of subsection (1)(ff.1)(i), persons are living separate and apart

                                 (a)    if they are living apart and either of them has the intention to live separate and apart from the other, or

                                 (b)    if, before the relevant time,

                                           (i)    they had been living separate and apart for any period, and

                                          (ii)    that period was interrupted or terminated by reason only that either of them became incapable of continuing to live separate and apart or of forming or having the intention to continue to live separate and apart of that person’s own volition,

                                          and the separation would probably have continued if that person had not become so incapable.

(2.1)  Notwithstanding subsection (1)(xx)(iii), a multi‑unit plan may, with respect to the period not exceeding 1 year provided for in the plan, either allow a member to elect that or provide that the cessation circumstances described in subsection (1)(xx)(iii) are not to constitute termination of membership, and if the member (having made that election where the plan allows the election rather than mandates the circumstances) becomes employed before the end of that period in an employment for which a participating employer is required by that plan to make contributions to that plan on the member’s behalf, there is no termination of the membership.

(3)  Notwithstanding subsection (1)(xx)(i), a member of a specified multi‑employer plan terminating membership by virtue of that subclause who has ceased employment is deemed to have terminated membership while employed in the province or territory where the member was employed at the beginning of the period referred to in that subclause.

(3.1)  The breaks in employment established for the purposes of subsection (1)(ccc)(ii) are any period not exceeding 52 consecutive weeks,

                                 (a)    where an actual cessation of employment has not occurred, respecting which the member

                                           (i)    immediately before the beginning of that period was in the employment of one employer,

                                          (ii)    is not during that period doing work or providing a service for that employer for remuneration, and

                                         (iii)    after the expiry of that period is again in the employment of that employer,

                                     or

                                 (b)    where an actual cessation of employment has occurred, respecting which the plan treats the employment, whether with one or more than one employer, as continuing without interruption,

provided that, in the case of a multi‑unit plan that provides as mentioned under subsection (2.1), the member returns to employment with the same employer in the case of clause (a) or becomes employed with any participating employer referred to in subsection (2.1) in the case of clause (b), before the expiration of the period referred to in subsection (2.1).

(3.2)  For the purposes of this Act, assets of a pension plan are determined on the basis of their market value

                                 (a)    if those assets are valued at the most probable price that they should bring in an arm’s length sale in a competitive and open market under all cond