St. John Ambulance brings back DB pension by joining CAAT

Effective date expected to be April 1, 2021

Toronto, March 15, 2021 – About 500 employees of St. John Ambulance are poised to join the CAAT Pension Plan through DBplus, effective April 1, 2021.

St. John Ambulance sponsors the St. John pension plan, which is comprised of a closed defined benefit and an ongoing defined contribution plan. The defined benefit provision of the plan was closed at the end of 2014. Since that time, its employees have only accrued pensions under the defined contribution provision of the plan.

The charity operates with a mission to improve people’s health, safety, and quality of life, and trains over 500,000 students in Canada each year in first aid and CPR.

Under DBplus, matching contribution rates typically range from 5% to 9%, and once established at joining, are fixed.

St. John Ambulance will join other nonprofit organizations, such as the Vancouver Foundation, Northwest Community Legal Clinic, and the United Way of Greater Toronto, who have recently joined CAAT through DBplus.

As an innovative and award-winning plan, DBplus is making secure defined benefit pensions accessible to more working Canadians across the country.

The CAAT Pension Plan is open for growth in membership 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 plan. Although DBplus was only made available to Canadian workplaces in 2019, 50 employers have already joined. CAAT now has members across Canada from 10 industries and has support and participation from 16 unions and member associations.

Quotes

“CAAT is proud to welcome members from St. John Ambulance. DBplus is helping more working Canadians improve their financial security in retirement while allowing employers to offer valuable and desirable defined benefit pensions at a fixed-cost with no financial risks.”
Derek W. Dobson, CEO, CAAT Pension Plan

“Joining CAAT will allow us to offer our valued employees a durable lifetime pension. It also means we’re able to move pensions to those with pension expertise so we can concentrate on what we do best—namely, improve people’s health, safety and quality of life.”
Jerry Rankin, CEO, St. John Ambulance – National Office

For more information:
Media Relations
CAAT Pension Plan
media@caatpension.ca