Individual Options

The Retirement Plan offers individual options. These options aim to allow participants to leverage the Group Plan to increase their future retirement income.

Option 1: Voluntary Contributions

This option is for participants who wish to contribute beyond the regular contribution determined by their organization. Amounts accumulated through voluntary contributions will be accounted for differently from regular contributions. You will receive the Plan’s annual return, minus its management fees.

Why Make Voluntary Contributions?

Essentially, choosing to make voluntary contributions is an investment decision. The Plan offers a very attractive investment opportunity that will help you achieve your retirement savings goals. Thus, these contributions can have several uses:

1.

Upon your retirement, they could be converted to increase your guaranteed lifetime annuity, within permitted tax limits.

2.

Upon your retirement, you could withdraw all or part of the voluntary contributions (less taxes) or transfer them to an RRSP to control the pace of disbursement of your savings yourself.

3.

They could finance a past service buy-back with your current employer or a former employer who is a Plan member for the years you worked without contributing to the Plan.

Just like your regular salary contribution, your voluntary contributions offer you a tax deduction.

By making voluntary contributions, the contributor benefits from professional management, the Plan’s investment opportunities, and management fees that are lower than typical RRSPs. You may also be aware of the importance of ESG factors (environmental, social, and governance) that the Plan considers in the selection of its various funds. Similar to a mutual fund, the value of voluntary contributions can fluctuate with financial market volatility and may even decrease in certain years.

Performance History for Voluntary Contributions Since 2008

Year	Annual Return	Year	Annual Return
2008	5,59 %	2016	7,21 %
2009	17,76 %	2017	7,08 %
2010	6,38 %	2018	-1,10 %
2011	-3,82 %	2019	14,62 %
2012	3,41 %	2020	6,79 %
2013	10,81 %	2021	13,16 %
2014	7,70 %	2022	-5,78 %
2015	1,88 %	2023	7,98 %

How to Make Voluntary Contributions?

Method	How to Proceed	Taxation
Payroll Deduction	Your voluntary contributions are deducted from your pay. You can choose an additional percentage to your regular contribution or determine a fixed amount to deposit into the Plan. 1. Complete the calculation form. You can request it from the secretariat or download it from our website. 2. Submit a copy to the Plan secretariat and to the person responsible for payroll and monthly remittances in your organization. You can start, change, and stop voluntary contributions at any time.	Your tax savings will be applied to your pay. The amount of your contribution will be included in the Pension Adjustment (PA) indicated on your T4 tax slip issued by your employer. You must ensure that you respect the maximum annual tax-deductible amount permitted based on your regular contribution and your salary. Our form will help you with this calculation. Do not hesitate to ask the secretariat for assistance.
Transfer	To transfer an RRSP, LIRA, or VRSP to the Plan, please contact us to obtain the dedicated transfer form. Please note that it is always possible to transfer RRSPs, VRSPs, and RRIFs as voluntary contributions up to two years after the termination of employment with the last member employer. Please note! Labour-sponsored funds (Fondaction CSN, Fonds de solidarité FTQ) have specific rules: you must wait until retirement or be 65 years or older to transfer assets that are more than 730 days old.	No tax impact. You have already benefited from your tax savings during the initial deposit.

Administrative Rules Upon Withdrawal

Withdrawals of voluntary contributions can be made at any time by contacting us. The number of withdrawals is not limited, but starting from the third withdrawal request, the Plan will charge administrative fees for the transaction.

Option 2: Past Service Buy-Back

It is possible for a Plan participant to immediately increase their guaranteed retirement annuity by paying an amount to purchase an additional annuity for periods worked, but not contributed, with a Plan member employer.

Eligibility

Any active Plan participant or anyone who has ceased to be active with a member employer for less than two years and has not yet started receiving a retirement annuity from the Plan is eligible. This person can submit their buy-back request at any time up to 3 months before their retirement.

Periods Eligible for Buy-Back

Depending on your situation, several periods could be bought back:

• Years of work performed with your current employer prior to your enrollment in the Plan;

• Years of work performed with another employer who is currently a Plan member, but prior to your enrollment in the Plan;

• Periods of work performed with your current employer or another employer after your enrollment in the Plan, but which were not contributed to during the absence (e.g., maternity leave, illness, etc.), subject, where applicable, to the maximum periods provided in Article 9 or Annex 4 of the Plan Text.

Cost of Buy-Back and Annuity Obtained

The calculation of an annuity buy-back takes into account several factors: age at the calculation date, gender, salary for the current year, the total group contribution rate, and the number of months and/or years eligible for buy-back. Like any annuity obtained through the Plan, the bought-back annuity is guaranteed and cannot be reduced, regardless of the Plan’s financial health. Furthermore, it will be indexed when the Plan indexes annuities.

A $75 fee is added to the buy-back cost for the administrative work required by the actuary. Please note that it is possible to buy back only a portion of the amount. The bought-back annuity will then be proportional to the amount paid.

Payment Methods

The following payment methods are possible and can be combined:

1.

Payment by cheque: entitles you to an income tax deduction;

2.

Payment by employer: this buy-back does not entitle you to a tax deduction, but is also not added to your taxable income;

3.

Transfer directly from a retirement vehicle (RRSP), which has no tax impact for you;

4.

Transfer from the Fonds de solidarité FTQ or Fondaction CSN RRSP within 3 months prior to your retirement or from age 65. This transfer has no tax impact for you;

5.

Transfer of voluntary contributions made to the Plan. This transfer has no tax impact for you.

Procedure to Follow for a Buy-Back

1.

You must first submit a request to the Plan secretariat to perform the calculation;

2.

You must then have your current employer complete a confirmation form. If you wish to buy back years worked with one or more former employers, you will also need to ask them to complete a confirmation form for former employers;

3.

If you wish to pay in whole or in part by transfer from an RRSP, you must complete a transfer form. The secretariat will assist you with this step;

4.

Finally, you must submit the following documents to the Plan secretariat:
• the signed calculation form,
• a copy of an official document bearing your date of birth (e.g., birth certificate, driver’s license, passport, health insurance card, etc.),
• the confirmation slip from your previous employer (if applicable),
• the payment cheque (if applicable) and/or the signed transfer form(s).

Once the actuaries have validated the calculation, a request for certification will be made to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). You will then receive written confirmation of your buy-back, as well as a copy of the CRA’s certification.

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.