News & Events

Celebrating one year of DBplus!

DBplus just turned one! In its first year, DBplus has provided more members of the CAAT Pension Plan with the opportunity to earn a predictable, secure, defined benefit pension in retirement, paid for life.

A year in review of DBplus

To celebrate this milestone, here are a few facts about the first year of the DBplus plan design:

• There are nearly 10,000 DBplus members in the Ontario college system, plus nearly 13,000 who joined from a wide range of employers from across Canada.
• On January 1, 2020, DBplus pensions earned up to the end of 2019 received an Average Industrial Wage (AIW) increase of 2.25%.
• Nearly 300 retired members are currently collecting a lifetime pension in DBplus.

CAAT welcomes new employers in 2020

The CAAT Pension Plan continues to diversify its membership and extend its reach across Canada. On January 1, 2020, CAAT welcomed three more employers to the growing list of members in the DBplus plan design. The CAAT Plan’s newest employers are Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Toronto, FP Canadian Newspapers Limited Partnership (FPLP), and United Way of Greater Toronto. These employers represent over 1,000 new CAAT members.

In addition, Wright Henry LLP, a Toronto-based legal firm specializing in employment and labour law, joined CAAT on a go-forward basis effective October 1, 2019. The Plan expects to welcome many more new employers from the Canadian legal community later this year.

The CAAT Pension Plan is open for growth where it is mutually beneficial, from the public, private or not-for-profit sectors in Canada. This includes workplaces currently offering defined benefit pension plans, defined contribution plans, group RRSPs, and those with no current workplace retirement savings program.

Inflation protection announcements to retired members

We are in the process of notifying retired members of the 2020 inflation protection increase.

If you get pension-related inquiries from retired members or survivors, please refer them to their CAAT Plan pension hotline.

2020 DCT training schedule – Register for DCT training

The Data Collection Tool (DCT) will be available starting January 24, 2020. DCT training webinars will be offered on January 21, 22 and 23.

Choose the training session that’s right for you!

You can choose to participate in either a complete DCT training webinar, or a refresher for those who have attended in the past.

Full DCT training for employers that offer DBplus only

• Date:Tuesday, January 21
• Time: 10 am - 11:30 am
• Be sure to attend this session if your employer only offers DBplus.

Full DCT training for employers that offer DBprime and DBplus

• Date: Wednesday, January 22
• Time: 10 am - 12 pm
• Whether you’ve used the DCT before or not, this session will guide you through the DCT process and provide you with an opportunity to ask questions.

DCT refresher for employers that offer DBprime and DBplus

• Date: January 23
• Time: 10 am - 11 am
• This session is ideal if you’ve used the DCT before, and just need to see what’s new.

If you are unable to attend the live sessions, recordings will be made available online.

Contribution tolerance level for DBplus contributions

For DBplus contributions, the Data Collection Tool (DCT) will flag any contributions that are more than $1 outside the expected contributions, based on the member’s pensionable earnings and the applicable contribution rate. The tolerance for DBplus contributions will be added to the Employer Manual by January 24, 2019. The DBprime contribution tolerance level remains at 2%.

Employer Attestation for 2019 begins in January

The 2019 Employer Attestation of Administrative Compliance will be delivered to college presidents, and employer CEOs and CFOs on January 16, 2020.

The Attestation forms and 2019 employer training records will be sent by email, and the attestation form needs to be completed and sent back to the Plan by March 31, 2020.

Send your completed forms to Sandy Cook, Manager, Employer Services at scook@caatpension.on.ca. For any questions about the attestation, please contact Sandy.

Member presentations for 2020

In 2020, we hope to reach as many members through presentations as we did in 2019 through on-site member presentations, regional events, webinars, and online video views. In 2019, we reached 6,285 members through presentations, exceeding our goal of 5,000. Currently booking sessions for 2020 To arrange a presentation for your members, contact presentations@caatpension.on.ca with your preferred date, so that we can secure it for you.

Upcoming events

Be sure to take note of the following dates, and register for and attend upcoming sessions:

January 21 to 23 – Employer Education Sessions: DCT Training

February 25 – Employer Update webinar

Invitations for these sessions will be sent out approximately 2 weeks in advance.