On July 1, 2020, Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) and the Ontario Compensation Employees Union converted WSIB’s $3.5 billion defined benefit, single employer pension plan (SEPP) to a jointly sponsored pension plan (JSPP) that is now administered by an independent Board of Trustees. This SEPP to JSPP conversion is the first ever of its kind in Canada. The WSIB plan is now listed as a JSPP under the Pension Benefits Act, consistent with a number of Ontario’s largest pension funds, such as the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, the College of Applied Arts and Technology Pension Plan and the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System.
Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP advised the JSPP’s Board of Trustees with a team consisting of Paul Litner, Jonathan Marin, Glorie Alfred, Omar Sunderji, Olivia Suppa, Brenda Carson (Pensions & Benefits), Matias Milet, Jennifer Lee, Andrew Granek, Roger Smith (Taxation), Simon Hodgett (Technology), Lori Stein, Sandra Malcolm (Corporate), Melanie Simon and Kelly O’Ferrall (Employment & Labour).