First Nations Pension Plans - Supreme Court of Canada Decision (May 2012)

In InfoPensions – Issue 5, OSFI provided information on the potential implications of the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) decision in NIL/TU,O Child and Family Services Society v. B.C. Government and Service Employees' Union for some federally regulated First Nations pension plans. The SCC decision provides direction on the jurisdiction applicable to labour matters in respect of First Nations. Where the employer's business, work or undertaking is not in an area over which Parliament has exclusive legislative authority, the employer and its pension plan are subject to provincial jurisdiction.

OSFI has begun identifying pension plans that may be affected by the SCC decision. To date, OSFI has communicated with plan administrators and employers in British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan to inform them that, based on OSFI’s review, their plans appear to fall under provincial jurisdiction. As part of the dialogue, plan administrators and employers are given the opportunity to provide OSFI with information demonstrating otherwise. Through this process, a number of plans have been identified as being subject to provincial jurisdiction and OSFI has begun transferring the supervision of these plans to the relevant provincial jurisdictions.

In addition, OSFI has delivered Webinars to plan administrators and other external stakeholders to provide information on the SCC decision and OSFI’s process for identifying and transferring plans that fall under provincial jurisdiction.

OSFI will continue its process of identifying federally registered First Nations pension plans affected by the SCC decision. OSFI also expects the administrators of these pension plans to assess the impact that the SCC decision may have on their pension plans.