General Information

What This Plan Offers Me

The Community and Women’s Groups Retirement Plan offers retirement income security through the payment of a lifetime annuity that may be indexed. Unlike RRSPs and VRSPs, which focus on individual management, our wage-financed retirement plan is a collective plan that shares longevity risk and investment return risk among all participants. This risk pooling guarantees the payment of the retirement annuity until death.

Tax Benefits of the Plan

Employee contributions are tax-deductible. Since they are deducted directly from payroll, the tax reduction is immediate. Employer contributions are not considered a taxable benefit. You do not have to pay social benefits (employment insurance, QPP, QPIP, etc.) on this amount, as is the case for an employer contribution to an RRSP. When you withdraw an annuity from the Plan, this income will be taxable.

Start of Contributions

If you are a regular employee, you begin contributing three months after hiring. The employer may have enhanced this rule (you can verify this by consulting Appendix 4 of the Plan Text ). If you were already a contributor to the Plan, you contribute from the moment of your hiring, regardless of your employment status. For non-regular employees, other rules apply. For more details, please consult the Plan Membership section.

Annuity Accumulation

The employer pays contributions to the Retirement Plan monthly. As soon as the money is deposited, the individual receives a guaranteed annual annuity credit for their future retirement. This is indexed periodically when the Plan’s financial situation allows.

This accumulated annuity will never decrease. Specifically, the annuity accumulation rate is 11%, meaning that each $100 contribution paid into the Plan immediately purchases an annual annuity of $11, before indexation. The number of $100 payments will determine the retirement annuity. Thus, three factors contribute to annuity accumulation: the number of years of contribution, the contribution rate, and the individual’s salary. To help you project your retirement annuity amount, use the calculator found on the homepage.

According to this annuity formula, penalty-free retirement is payable from age 65. However, it is possible to retire before age 65 with a penalty (-6%/year) or after age 65 with an annuity enhancement (+6%/year).

Know the amount of annuity accumulated in the Plan
Each year, in July, you will receive your annual participation statement. This statement can be found on your personal page of the Plan’s administrative site in the “My Statements” section. It indicates the amount of annuity you accumulated as of December 31 of the previous year, as well as a projection of your retirement annuity. You can consult your “Participation History” to add payments made since the last annual statement to the acquired annuity.

Do you have questions about our Plan?

Do you have questions about your retirement? We are here to help you answer them clearly and precisely.