Video transcript for the hearing impaired

By Michel Lizée
Coordinator of UQAM’s Service aux collectivités
Member of the executive committee of the RRFS-GCF pension committee

Pension plan has been launched on October 1st, 2008. At this point, it has nearly 1500 participants with 214 groups participating and with assets over 1.6 million dollars. It is a defined benefit plan that has been set up by the community sector for the community sector.

It has four main characteristics.

First characteristic: Guaranteed pension

The first one is that the pension that is credited to the member is a guaranteed pension. In other words, even if the plan situation is in deficit or if the plan has poor returns, the benefit that has been acquired by each member is guaranteed and must be paid. So, for each $100 of contribution that is put into the pension plan, an annual pension credit of $10 at age 65 is guaranteed and will be paid on a life long basis.

Second characteristic: Contributions set on a year-to-year basis

The second characteristic is that the employer contribution is limited to the annual level decided by the employer and this amount may go up and down on a year to year basis depending on the financial situation of the community group or the women’s group.

Third characteristic: Contributions include the cost of indexing

A third characteristic of the pension plan is that the contributions include the cost of indexing for the rest of the life, but the indexing is used as a reserve or as a cushion to be able to absorb the shocks of years that are more difficult. But, on the other hand, when the situation is favourable, all plan surplus must revert to the participants and indexing is the first item that must be provided to all plan members before anything else is done with plan assets.

Fourth characteristic: Multiemployer pension plan

Finally, this pension plan is a multiemployer pension plan. It means that a plan participant may move from one group to the other and will accrue the benefits throughout his or her career and at the end the benefit will be paid based on the total contributions that have been paid. It means that each group that decides to belong to the plan has the ability to decide what is the level of the employer contribution and what is the level of the employee contribution. Each year this contribution may go up or down.

An innovative approach… An outstanding pension plan

This pension plan is administered by a pension committee, which is elected annually by the plan members and by the participating employers. It is regulated by the Régie des rentes du Québec. To assist the pension committee and make sure that it is well administered, the pension plan has selected an actuarial firm which does the administration of the individual files and makes sure that the rights of every plan member are well taken.

We have also selected an insurer, Desjardins Sécurité Financière, which acts as a custodian for all the funds in the pension plan and in turn these funds are invested in several different funds, which include Canadian bonds, Canadian equity and international equity.

You too can enjoy a better retirement income by contributing now to the community and women’s groups pension plan!

For additional information:

www.regimeretraite.ca
514-878-4473
1 888-978-4473 (Toll free)

Our thanks to all the member-groups who sent us photos, in particular:

• Association L’amitié n’a pas d’âge
• Centre d’action bénévole de Bedford et environs inc.
• Centre d’action bénévole Émilie-Gamelin
• Centre de recherche d’emploi de l’Est
• Groupe de ressources techniques en habitation de la région de Sorel
• Fablier, une histoire de familles
• Projet Changement – Centre communautaire pour les aînés (Photographer : Robert Laliberté)
• Regroupement national des conseils régionaux de l’environnement du Québec
• Réseau d’aide Le Tremplin

Research and screenwriting
Michel Lizée and Lise Gervais, with the collaboration of Arielle Hudon-Fortier

Directors
Patrick Parent, Daniel Labbé and Guylaine Pariseau

Interviews
Vanessa Pelletier

Camera operator
Jean-François Fecteau

Graphic design
Photo Veer Marketplace DizingDesign.com

Music
Neo Sounds.com

Photographer
(Photos of committee) Marie-Andrée Boivin

Editing and computer graphics
Guylaine Pariseau

Directors
Daniel Labbé
Patrick Parent
Guylaine Pariseau

Production coordinator
Pascale Rousseau

Production
Ministère de l’Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale
Direction des communications

Gouvernement du Québec