Pooled Registered Pension Plans Act (S.C. 2012, c. 16)

Duty to Provide Information

Marginal note:Annual reporting requirements

• 58 (1) The administrator of a pooled registered pension plan must file with the Superintendent — annually or at any other intervals or times that the Superintendent directs — an information return relating to that plan, containing the prescribed information.

• Marginal note:Financial statements and other information

  (2) The administrator of a pooled registered pension plan must file with the Superintendent prescribed financial statements and any other prescribed information at any intervals or times that the Superintendent directs.

• Marginal note:Financial statements

  (3) Except as otherwise specified by the Superintendent, the financial statements must be prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, the primary source of which is the Handbook of the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada.

• Marginal note:Form and manner of filings and time limit

  (4) Every document required to be filed under this section must be filed in the form and manner that the Superintendent may direct and, unless otherwise directed by the Superintendent, be filed within three months after the end of the year to which the document relates.

Marginal note:Information to members

59 The administrator must provide to the members, at the time and in the manner specified by the Superintendent, any information that the Superintendent specifies.

Marginal note:Information to Superintendent

60 The employer and the administrator must provide to the Superintendent, at the time and in the manner specified by the Superintendent, any information that the Superintendent specifies.

Termination and Winding-Up

Marginal note:Termination of pooled registered pension plan

61 Only the Superintendent or the administrator may terminate a pooled registered pension plan.

Marginal note:Deemed termination

• 62 (1) The revocation of registration of a pooled registered pension plan is deemed to constitute the termination of the plan.

• Marginal note:Superintendent may declare plan terminated

  (2) The Superintendent may declare a pooled registered pension plan terminated if

  • (a) a bankruptcy order has been made against the administrator under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act;

  • (b) the administrator is the subject of a winding-up order under the Winding-up and Restructuring Act;

  • (c) the administrator is the subject of proceedings under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act or Part III of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act; or

  • (d) the administrator has discontinued or is in the process of discontinuing its business operations.

• Marginal note:Date of termination

  (3) The Superintendent’s declaration must specify that a pooled registered pension plan is terminated as of the date that the Superintendent considers appropriate in the circumstances.

• Marginal note:Notification — employers and members

  (4) An administrator must, not less than 60 days and not more than 180 days before the date on which it terminates a pooled registered pension plan, provide written notification of this termination to the employers that are participating in the plan and the members of the plan. The notice must specify the date of the termination.

• Marginal note:Notification — Superintendent

  (5) An administrator must, not less than 60 and not more than 180 days before the date on which it terminates or winds up a pooled registered pension plan, provide notification of this termination or winding-up to the Superintendent. The notice must specify the date of the termination or winding up and be in the form and manner directed by the Superintendent.

• Marginal note:Termination or winding up effective

  (6) Subject to subsections (1) and (2), the termination is effective only if the administrator notifies the Superintendent in accordance with subsection (5).

• Marginal note:Payments into members’ accounts

  (7) If a pooled registered pension plan is terminated, the employer must remit to the administrator, and the administrator must pay into the members’ accounts, all amounts that are due as of the date of the termination.

• Marginal note:Effect of termination on assets

  (8) On the termination of a pooled registered pension plan, the assets of the plan continue to be subject to this Act.

• Marginal note:Termination report

  (9) On the termination of a pooled registered pension plan, the administrator of the plan must file with the Superintendent, in the form and manner that the Superintendent may direct, a termination report prepared by a person having the prescribed qualifications. The report must also set out the amounts referred to in subsection (7) — calculated as of the date of termination — and contain any prescribed information.

• Marginal note:Assets not to be used or transferred

  (10) Assets of the pooled registered pension plan must not be used or transferred for any purpose until the Superintendent has approved the termination report. However, the administrator of the plan may make variable payments, as they fall due, to any persons entitled to receive them.

• Marginal note:Superintendent may direct winding-up

  (11) If a pooled registered pension plan has been terminated and the Superintendent is of the opinion that no action or insufficient action has been taken to wind up the plan, the Superintendent may direct the administrator to distribute the funds in the members’ accounts and may direct that any expenses incurred in connection with that distribution be paid out of the members’ accounts, and the administrator must comply with that direction without delay.

General

Marginal note:Designation of beneficiaries — provincial law

63 Except to the extent that they are inconsistent with this Act, any provisions of any provincial law respecting the designation of beneficiaries that would be applicable to a pension plan are deemed to apply to members who are employed in included employment as though that employment were not included employment.

Marginal note:Electronic communications

• 64 (1) Any requirement under this Act to provide a person with information, including information in a document, may be satisfied by the provision of an electronic document if

  • (a) the addressee has consented and has designated an information system for the receipt of the electronic document;

  • (b) the electronic document is provided to the designated information system; and

  • (c) the information in the electronic document is accessible by the addressee and capable of being retained by the addressee, so as to be usable for subsequent reference.

• Meaning of information system

  (2) For the purposes of subsection (1), information system means a system used to generate, send, receive, store or otherwise process an electronic document.

• Marginal note:Revocation of consent

  (3) An addressee may revoke the consent referred to in paragraph (1)(a).

• Marginal note:Non-application

  (4) Subsections (1) and (3) do not apply

  • (a) to any requirement under this Act to provide the Minister or the Superintendent with information;

  • (b) to any requirement under this Act, imposed on the Minister or the Superintendent, to provide a person with information; or

  • (c) to any requirement under this Act exempted, by regulation, from the application of those subsections.

• Marginal note:Communications by Minister or Superintendent

  (5) For greater certainty, the Minister and the Superintendent may use electronic means to communicate information, including information in a document, under this Act.

Marginal note:Signatures

65 A requirement under this Act for a signature is satisfied in relation to an electronic document if any prescribed requirements are met and if the signature results from the use by a person of a technology or a process that permits the following to be proven:

• (a) the signature resulting from the use by the person of the technology or process is unique to them;

• (b) the technology or process is used by the person to incorporate, attach or associate their signature to the electronic document; and

• (c) the technology or process can be used to identify its user.

Marginal note:Enforcement of direction

• 66 (1) A direction of the Superintendent may be made an order of the Federal Court and is enforceable in the same manner as such an order.

• Marginal note:Procedure

  (2) To make a direction of the Superintendent an order of the Federal Court, the Superintendent must file with the registrar of the Federal Court a certified copy of the direction, signed by the Superintendent, at which time the direction becomes an order of the court.

• Marginal note:Effect of variation or rescission

  (3) If a direction of the Superintendent that has been made an order of the Federal Court is rescinded or varied by a subsequent direction of the Superintendent, the order of the Federal Court is deemed to have been cancelled and the subsequent direction may be made an order of the court.

• Marginal note:Option to enforce

  (4) The Superintendent may, before or after one of his or her directions is made an order of the Federal Court, enforce the direction by his or her own action.

Marginal note:Application to Federal Court

• 67 (1) If an administrator, employer or other person has omitted to do anything under this Act that is required to be done by them or on their part or contravenes a provision of this Act or the regulations, the Superintendent may, in addition to any other action that the Superintendent may take, apply to the Federal Court for an order requiring the administrator, employer or other person to cease the contravention or to do anything that is required to be done, and on such an application the Federal Court may make that order and make any other order that it thinks fit.

• Marginal note:Appeal

  (2) An appeal from an order made under subsection (1) lies in the same manner as an appeal from any other order of the Federal Court.

Marginal note:Superintendent may bring actions

68 In addition to any other action that the Superintendent may take in respect of a pooled registered pension plan, the Superintendent may institute against the administrator, employer or any other person any legal proceedings that a member could institute.

Marginal note:Inspection

• 69 (1) The Superintendent or any person authorized in writing by the Superintendent may, for a purpose related to verifying compliance with this Act,

  • (a) examine any book, record or other document, regardless of its physical form or characteristics, relating to a pooled registered pension plan or to any securities, obligations or other investments in which any assets of the pooled registered pension plan are invested; and

  • (b) require the administrator of a pooled registered pension plan to furnish any information in any form that, in the Superintendent’s opinion, is necessary.

• Marginal note:Powers of Superintendent

  (2) The Superintendent has the same powers as those conferred on commissioners under Part II of the Inquiries Act with respect to the taking of evidence.

• Marginal note:Payment of expenses

  (3) If the Superintendent directs an administrator to pay the fees and expenses of persons appointed on a temporary basis from outside the public service for the purposes of an inspection under paragraph (1)(a), including their fees and expenses related to preparing a report to the Superintendent, the administrator must not pay those fees and expenses from the assets of the plan.

Marginal note:No action against person for withholding, etc.

70 No action lies against any person for withholding, deducting, paying or crediting any sum of money if they do so under this Act or in the belief that they are doing so under this Act.

Marginal note:Agreement in contravention of Act

71 Any agreement or arrangement that, in contravention of this Act, requires a person to not withhold, deduct, pay or credit an amount is void or, in Quebec, null.

Marginal note:Agreement to transfer, etc.

72 Subject to any other provision of this Act and the regulations, any agreement or arrangement to transfer, charge, anticipate or give as security any of the following is void or, in Quebec, null:

• (a) any funds in an account with a pooled registered pension plan or a right or interest in those funds; or

• (b) any funds withdrawn from a member’s account under section 54 or a right or interest in those funds.

Marginal note:Agreement to surrender

• 73 (1) Any agreement or arrangement to surrender any of the following is void or, in Quebec, null:

  • (a) a right or interest in any funds in an account with a pooled registered pension plan; or

  • (b) a right or interest in any funds withdrawn from a member’s accounts under section 54.

• Marginal note:Exception

  (2) Subsection (1) does not apply to prevent the surrender of an interest or right made under subsection 52(3).

Marginal note:Non-application of Statutory Instruments Act

74 The Statutory Instruments Act does not apply to a direction issued by the Superintendent under this Act.

Offences and Punishment

Marginal note:Offences

• 75 (1) Every person is guilty of an offence who

  • (a) contravenes any provision of this Act or the regulations or a direction of the Superintendent given under this Act;

  • (b) to avoid compliance with a provision of this Act or the regulations,

    • (i) destroys, alters, mutilates, secretes or otherwise disposes of any record, writing or other document,

    • (ii) in any record, writing or other document, makes a false or deceptive statement or a false or deceptive entry, or

    • (iii) omits to furnish any material particular in any statement or in any record, writing or other document;

  • (c) knowingly prevents or obstructs, or attempts to prevent or obstruct, another person from doing anything that the other person is authorized to do under section 69 or, unless unable to do so, fails to do anything that is required to be done under that section; or

  • (d) being an employer, fails to remit to the administrator all amounts that the employer is liable to so remit.

• Marginal note:Defense of due diligence

  (2) A person is not to be found guilty of an offence under paragraph (1)(a) or (d) if the person establishes that he or she exercised due diligence to prevent the commission of the offence.

• Marginal note:Punishment

  (3) A person who commits an offence under this Act is

  • (a) in the case of a natural person, liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding $100,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months, or to both; and

  • (b) in the case of a corporation or other body, liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding $500,000.

• Marginal note:Remittance of amount owing

  (4) The court may also order the employer that is found guilty of the offence referred to in paragraph (1)(d) to remit to the administrator all amounts owing with interest.

• Marginal note:Evidence

  (5) In any prosecution for an offence under this Act, a certificate purporting to be signed by the Superintendent or by any person on the Superintendent’s behalf certifying that a copy of a pooled registered pension plan or of an amendment to that plan was not filed with the Superintendent as required by this Act, or certifying as to the registration of a pooled registered pension plan, is admissible in evidence and, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, is proof of the matters so certified.

• Marginal note:Limitation

  (6) Proceedings in respect of an offence under this Act may be commenced within two years after the day on which the subject matter of the proceedings became known to the Superintendent.

• Marginal note:Certificate of Superintendent

  (7) A document that appears to have been issued by the Superintendent, certifying the day on which the subject matter of any proceedings became known to the Superintendent, is admissible in evidence without proof of the signature or official character of the person appearing to have signed it and is, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, proof of the matter asserted in it.

• Marginal note:Corporations and other bodies

  (8) If a corporation or other body commits an offence under this Act, an officer, a director, an agent or mandatary or a member of the corporation or body who directed, authorized, assented to or acquiesced or participated in the commission of the offence is a party to the offence and liable, on summary conviction, to the punishment provided for the offence, whether or not the corporation or body has been prosecuted or convicted.

• Marginal note:Informations and complaints

  (9) An information or complaint under this section may be laid or made by any officer of the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, any member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police or any person authorized in writing by the Minister.