Plan funding

The current service cost of the Plan is shared equally between you and your employer. The contribution rate is reviewed periodically and may be adjusted upwards or downwards, based on the financial situation determined by the Plan’s actuarial valuation.

Your contributions

You contribute 6.6% of your eligible earnings since January 1, 2017. These contributions are withheld directly from your pay cheque and deductible from your taxable income. They are mandatory as of your eligibility date and include employee stabilization contributions.

You may not contribute more than the maximum contribution set annually by the Plan. This limit applies to your total income from all employers.

Contribution termination

You start making contributions upon membership and continue for as long as you work for an employer. When you reach age 65, you stop making contributions and accumulating credited service.

You may not be required to make Plan contributions during some types of temporary leave of absence. Please refer to the section Temporary leave of absence for additional information.

Interest on contributions

Your contributions accrue with interest at the pension fund’s rate of return. The interest is calculated on the market value of the assets, net of management and administration fees.

Employer contributions

The employer must make contributions based on the rate set in the Plan’s actuarial valuation report. However, this rate may not be less than the member contribution rate. The employer and member contribution rate, for current service and stabilization fund, is 6.6% of the members’ eligible earnings since January 1, 2017.

Employer contributions are subsidized by the ministère de la Famille (Ministère), which pays this annual subsidy directly into the pension fund.

There are no Ministère subsidies, however, for employer associations or groups: these employers must make their own contributions.

Tax repercussions of your Plan contributions

Your Plan contributions are tax deductible and subject to certain limits. More specifically, a pension adjustment (PA) is calculated to reflect the contributions made to the Plan during the year. This PA, which is printed on the T4 slip provided by your employer, reduces your Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) contribution room for the following year.

You will also find additional information on how much you can save, tax-free, for retirement, in the Other sources of retirement income appendix at the end of this guide.

Questions and answers about your contributions

May I make additional Plan contributions?
No. Additional voluntary contributions may not be made and amounts may not be transferred from another pension plan, RRSP, deferred profit-sharing plan (DPSP), or Locked-In Retirement Account (LIRA) into the Plan.

May I withdraw my contributions while still working for an employer?
No. These contributions are required to provide you with a retirement income later on. Take note that both employer and member contributions are used to replenish the pension fund from which your retirement pension will be withdrawn, calculated according to a pre-established formula. You may withdraw the value of the benefits you accumulated in the Plan upon termination of employment, retirement, or serious illness, subject to certain conditions. However, this value will not be equal to the sum of your contributions, but rather to the portion of the retirement pension you accumulated at the date of the event. For additional information, please refer to the Retirement and Termination of employment sections.

What if my contributions exceed the maximum contribution?
Should you make excess contributions during a given Plan year, the excess will be refunded to you and will bear interest at the pension fund’s net rate of return, calculated on the market value of the assets, net of management and administration fees.

This could happen, for instance, when you work for more than one employer. To check whether your total contribution amount exceeds the maximum contribution, add up your contributions made for the week or year, and compare the sum obtained with the applicable limits. Should you note that you have exceeded the allowable maximum, you can ask the appointed Plan administrator to authorize your employers to stop withholding or place a limit on contributions for the remainder of the year.

Please note that the maximum contribution for 2024 is $109.80 per week, or $5,709.40 per year.

What if contributions are withheld for overtime hours exceeding the 1,664 hour threshold?
Should you make contributions based on overtime hours in excess of the 1,664 hour threshold, the excess will be refunded to you annually by the Plan administrator and will bear interest at the pension fund’s net rate of return, calculated on the market value of the assets, net of management and administration fees.

This could happen, for instance, when your eligible hours have reached the 1,664 hour threshold and your employer has declared overtime hours for you and withheld the related contributions.