Independent Electricity System Operator Pension Plan, Registration Number 1059112

IN THE MATTER OF the Pension Benefits Act, R.S.O. 1990,

c. P.8, as amended (the “PBA”)

AND IN THE MATTER OF a Notice of Intended Decision of the Superintendent of Financial Services to Refuse to Make an Order under sections 87(2)(a) of the PBA relating to the Independent Electricity System Operator Pension Plan, Registration Number 1059112  

NOTICE OF INTENDED DECISION

REASONS:

1. The Plan is a defined benefit, single employer pension plan that was established on January 1, 2000.
2. The employer and administrator of the Plan is Independent Electricity System Operator (the “Administrator”). 
3. The Plan applies to members of the Power Workers Union, the Society of Energy Professionals, and non-union or management employees.  
4. D.T. is a non-union management member of the Plan who reached retirement age under the Plan in August 2011. 
5. D.T. received a statement from the administrator setting out the options available to D.T. on retirement.  That statement did not provide D.T. with the option of commencing payment of a pension from the Plan in relation to part of his accrued pension benefits in the Plan and commuting and transferring the balance of his accrued pension benefits in the Plan to another retirement savings vehicle.
6. D.T. requested that the Superintendent of Financial Services (the “Superintendent”) order that the Plan provide D.T. with the option of commencing payment of a pension from the Plan in relation to part of his accrued pension benefits in the Plan and commuting and transferring the balance of his accrued pension benefits in the Plan to another retirement savings vehicle.
7. The Plan does not provide D.T. with an entitlement to commence payment of a pension from the Plan in relation to part of his accrued pension benefits in the Plan and commute and transfer the balance of his accrued pension benefits in the Plan to another retirement savings vehicle.
8. Section 87(2)(a) of the PBA states that the Superintendent may make an order requiring an administrator to take or refrain from taking any action in respect of a pension plan or a pension fund if the Superintendent is of the opinion, upon reasonable and probable grounds, that the pension plan or pension fund is not being administered in accordance with the PBA or the pension plan.
9. The Superintendent is not of the opinion that the administrator of the Plan is not administering the Plan in accordance with the PBA or the Plan.
10. Such further and other reasons as may come to my attention.