Data reporting

This webinar is for employers who offer both plan designs - DBprime and DBplus and will provide information on administering leaves and pension purchases, along with an overview of the new option for members to pay online for certain purchases.

Date: October 26, 2023

Download the webinar slides - DBprime and DBplus session (PDF)

Watch the October 26, 2023 recorded session

This webinar is for employers who offer DBplus only and will provide information on administering leaves and pension purchases, along with an overview of the new option for members to pay online for certain purchases.

Date: October 26, 2023

Download the webinar slides - DBplus only session (PDF)

Watch the October 26, 2023 recorded session

This training session is for employers who administer the DBplus plan design and use Payroll-Based Reporting (PBR). It demonstrates how employers can submit their monthly contribution remittance information using PAL.

Date: July 12, 2023

Download the webinar slides – Contribution remittances using PAL (PDF)

Watch the July 12, 2023 recorded session

This training session is for employers who administer DBprime and DBplus plan designs and will demonstrate how employers can submit their monthly contribution remittance forms using PAL.

Date: May 9, 2023

Download the webinar slides – Contribution remittances using PAL (PDF)

Watch the May 9, 2023 recorded session

Dates: January 17, 2023 and January 19, 2023

This training will provide employers who administer DBprime and DBplus plan designs with a brief overview of the Data Collection Tool and provide any key changes to the tool that were made from last year.

• Download the webinar slides for the January 17, 2023 Overview training session (PDF)
• Download the webinar slides for the January 19, 2023 Refresher training session (PDF)
• 2022 DCT submission checklist (PDF)
• 2022 DCT Guide (PDF)

Watch the January 19, 2023 recorded session

Watch the January 17, 2023 recorded session

This webinar will provide employers who report using our Payroll Based Reporting platform, the year end reporting items required for 2022.

Date: January 9, 2023

Download the webinar slides – Year End Updates for Payroll Based Reporting (PDF)

Watch the January 9, 2023 recorded session

This webinar is for employers who offer both plan designs - DBprime and DBplus and will provide information on leaves and pension purchases.

Date: October 6, 2022

Watch the Oct 06, 2022 recorded session - Leaves and Pension Purchases

Watch the Oct 06, 2022 recorded session - Reporting Leaves in PAL

Watch the Oct 06, 2022 recorded session - Purchase Request demo

Oct 06, 2022 - Leaves and Purchases Webinar Questions and Answers

Would a disciplinary measure unpaid leave be considered as Grievance leave?

If a grievance is filed, the leave should be reported as a grievance. If the disciplinary measure is not grieved, it should be reported as an unpaid leave of absence.

Under what circumstance will the Plan issue a tax receipt for a service purchase?

A tax receipt is issued when a cash payment is received directly from the member. If the member provides funds to the Employer, this cash payment should be included on the T4 as contributions.

How can an employer initially offer a purchase to an employee, at the time the leave is being reported?

The employer can print off the leave form and complete the purchase section and provide to the member.

Specific to the PAL processes shared today, will there be a 'step by step' quick reference guide available?

The webinar slides provided shows the steps of how to report aa leave and complete a purchase request.

We need to be able to re-assign the leave to someone else in our organization. Is this possible?

Not at this time. In the future, we will be adding the assignment of leaves in PAL.

The leave reporting in PAL does not ask for deemed earnings, service or contributions. We had to provide this with the PDF forms. Will we be asked for that information later?

Yes, reporting leaves on PAL only allows for reporting a leave start and a leave stop. If you need to complete the purchase section of the leave form, you will provide the deemed earnings, service, or contributions when the member is ready to purchase the period. They can do this using the request a purchase feature in My Pension. If My Pension isn't used, you can complete the purchase form from the employer manual.

When an employee terminates from a leave, does a leave end (reason: term) and termination need to be processed?

Yes. We need to know the leave end date and the employer needs to submit a termination application for the member.

Can we do a purchase request form without the employee requesting it in PAL themselves?

Yes. Use the leave form from the employer manual and complete and provide to the member. We encourage you to ask members to register for My Pension so they can initiate a pension purchases online.

Will the "expected result" for service, contributions be added to the Purchase request form, similar to other forms on PAL?

Yes. In the future, we will add the expected results for contribution and service to the purchase request section.

Sometimes some suspension from work is reported as unpaid leave of absence, but later on if the decision changed to pay these days as regular work days, can we cancel the submitted leave?

Yes, you can cancel the leave. Reach out to your Employer Pension Analyst to report the cancelled leave.

We have many employees who are DBplus members who could come and go from employment with us up to 3 times a year. Are we expected to provide this information each time?

No. For Other Than Regular Full Time (OTRFT) members who work contract to contract, the time between contracts is not considered a leave that can be purchased. These gaps between contracts should not be reported as leaves.

To follow up on the DBplus question, if they take a leave during their contract those leaves can be reported in PAL (perhaps started a statutory leave before the contract ended)

If an OTRFT member has a leave within their contract period and they have hours they are unable to work because of the leave, this should be reported as a leave period.

Please confirm that employers can still accept and process payments for purchases before PSPA has been requested by the plan.

Yes. You can accept and process payments for purchases before Past Service Pension Adjustment (PSPA) approval from CRA.

I believe in the PAL demo it showed the purchase cost being split between Member and Employer and on the resulting form it showed it all being under Member. Is this correct?

In the demonstration, we used an example of the Statutory Leave form which shows the Member contributions in the purchase information section and below it shows the total member contributions and total matching employer contributions for the purchase. The layout of how the information is entered in PAL is different than how it is displayed on the form. Referencing the total member contributions and total employer contributions on the form will match what was entered in PAL.

Will PAL calculate the service for each active period if there are multiple leaves reported throughout the year? If more than one leave is reported, should we use “first day back to work” from the previous leave, as the “first work day of the first pay period for the year” field?

If a leave has been reported in the current year, you need to indicate the most recent active period so the "first work day of the first pay period for the year" should show as the return-to-work date from the previous leave that was reported.

1. Why can't you enter a retro date? 2. Why can't you enter end date at the same time as start date?

You can enter leave starts retroactively in PAL for the current year. However, it is a two-step process where you need to enter the leave start information and then complete the leave end information in PAL.

If a member completes a purchase request and the information they have entered is incorrect, would we have the option to correct it?

The purchase information the member is submitting is based on the leave start and stop information reported by the employer. The member is not able to update or change this information. If this information is incorrect, you will need to contact your Employer Pension Analyst to correct it.

When you print the purchase quote to be sent to the member, shouldn't it indicate the total purchase cost (i.e., employer + employer)?

The forms will show the total cost by adding the member and employer contributions if the purchase is cost shared. For leaves that are member paid, the member contributions should be two times the deemed contributions. This this will show as the total cost on the form.

How would an employer know which members have portal accounts?

We currently do not have a list or report of which of your members are using My Pension. We are looking into this to see if this is something we can provide in the future. In the meantime, we encourage you to ask members to register for My Pension so they can update their contact information, view Annual Statements, and more.

Where is deadline to purchase entered? What is provided to the employee? We need the form to have start date, end date, purchase deadline date on one form printable.

The purchase deadline will be populated by PAL and will be 6 months from the leave end date. The form will have the leave start, leave end date and the purchase deadline if the leave start and leave end were reported in PAL.

Is a process flow chart that illustrates both the reporting and purchase process available?

No, we don't have a process chart at this time. We do have PDF timeline documents on our website that outline the leave and purchase process for each type of leave and purchase.

Once election is made to purchase, how is this submitted?

You should print or scan the form that the member has signed and send to CAAT via Message Centre in PAL.

Can an employer report a future leave end date immediately after reporting the leave start date, or do they need to wait until after a leave has ended?

You are not able to report any future-dated leave starts or leave end dates in PAL. You will need to report when the leave starts and when the leave ends.

It will not be efficient for us to hold onto paperwork to enter the CAAT piece on the date of leave or later. Leave processes are done ahead of time to meet payroll deadlines etc. Can this please change.

Thank you for your suggestion. We have set up the leave start and leave end reporting so that it is reported when it has started or when it is confirmed that it has ended. This is to avoid any corrections or revisions if these dates change prior to the leave starting or ending.

When reporting a leave start, can an employer report retroactive earnings that were paid prior to the last contribution date?

If the retroactive earnings are only for current year, you can include these earnings as earnings prior to the leave. If the retroactive earnings are for prior years, do not report these on the leave form and report these on the DCT with the allocations for the years the earnings are to be applied.

If a member does not have a portal account, how would they initiate a purchase?

They should contact their employer to initiate a purchase and the employer will complete the appropriate form from the employer manual. We encourage you to ask members to register for My Pension so they can update their contact information, view Annual Statements, initiate pension purchases, and more.

Can member signature be electronic?

We are currently reviewing electronic signatures and will provide more information on this in the future.

Will purchase quotes be updated to advise members that PSPA approval is no longer required before remitting payment?

We will be updating the forms and Employer Manual with this updated information.

This webinar is for employers who offer DBplus only and will provide information on administering leaves and pension purchases.

Date: October 6, 2022

Watch the Oct 06, 2022 recorded session - Leaves and Pension Purchases - DBplus Only

Watch the Oct 06, 2022 recorded session - Purchase Request Demo DBplus Only

This session is for employers that offer both plan designs - DBPrime and DBplus and will provide information on the new DBplus Pension Adjustment offset that will need to be used starting with pension adjustments to be reported for the 2023 tax year.

Date: July 21, 2022

Download the webinar slides – Employer Education Session - New DBplus Pension Adjustment Offset (PDF)

Watch the July 21, 2022 recorded session

This session is for employers that offer our DBplus plan design only and will review the new DBplus Pension Adjustment offset that will need to be used starting with pension adjustments to be reported for 2023 tax year.

Date: July 21, 2022

Download the webinar slides - Employer Education Session - New DBplus Pension Adjustment Offset - DBplus Only

Watch the July 21, 2022 DBplus only recorded session

This session is for employers that offer both DBprime and DBplus plan designs and covers the employer role in data reporting for members who terminate, retire, or die in active service, have a change of employment or start on long-term disability. We will review the Plan's in-year reporting requirements for these scenarios.

Date: May 5, 2022

Download the webinar slides – In-year Reporting - Retirements, Terminations and Deaths (PDF)

Watch the May 5, 2022 recorded session

This session is for employers that offer the DBplus plan design only and covers the employer role in data reporting for members who terminate, retire, or die in active service, have a change of employment or start on long-term disability. We will review the Plan's in-year reporting requirements for these scenarios.

Date: May 5, 2022

Download the webinar slides – DBplus Only - In-year Reporting - Retirements, Terminations and Deaths (PDF)

Watch the May 5, 2022 DBplus Only recorded session

Date: February 17, 2022

This webinar provides an overview of how to submit Payroll Based Reporting files into PAL, for DBplus only employers.

Download the slides - Payroll Based Reporting (PBR) in PAL (PDF)

Watch the February 17, 2022 recorded session