Pension Benefits Guarantee Fund (PBGF)

A buyer of an Ontario business with a defined benefit plan meets the fund as a recurring assessment the employer may owe. The plan’s funding position is covered in the going-concern funding deficiency entry, and the wider sale questions in what happens to the pension or benefits plan.

How it is funded

Section 82(3.1) of the Act says the Guarantee Fund is to be funded, subject to s. 102.1(10), by all employers required to make contributions under defined benefit plans that are not exempt from the Fund by the Act or the regulations. Regulation 909, s. 37(1), requires such an employer, other than for a designated plan, an individual pension plan or a plan described in s. 6(1), to pay an annual assessment on or before each assessment date, subject to ss. 7(5) and 7.0.3(2); s. 37(1.1) says this does not apply to a jointly sponsored pension plan.

What it covers

Section 77 says that, subject to the application of the Guarantee Fund, if a pension fund cannot pay all benefits on wind up, the benefits are reduced in the prescribed manner. Section 85 lists what the Fund does not guarantee, so read it for the plan in question.

• Whether the plan is a defined benefit plan or exempt from the Fund.
• The assessment certificates and payments filed to date.