The issue of whether long-term disability claims are arbitrable or matters for the court, which has plagued Ontario’s hospital sector for over a quarter of a century, is on its way to the Supreme Court of Canada. “The current state of the law, which denies employees seeking long-term disability benefits under insurance policies issued pursuant to a collective agreement access to the courts, should be a concern because the insurance sector is getting double recovery at the expense of the...

The British Columbia Supreme Court has ruled that a clause in an employment agreement mandating arbitration as a way of resolving wrongful dismissal disputes doesn’t illegally contract out of provincial employment standards legislation. The ruling departs from Ontario jurisprudence that’s currently under appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada. “The B.C. judge was clearly looking for a way to distinguish the Ontario decision and found it by observing that the case before her did not involve an...

The first major reform to the U.S. retirement system in a decade, the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act, contains provisions that could be useful guides for Canadian legislators and regulators. Signed into law by President Donald Trump in December, the act, known as SECURE, is primarily aimed at addressing Americans’ difficulty in saving and investing for retirement. If some of the ideas were adopted in Canada, they could have a significant impact on plan...

Ontario’s pension benefits guarantee fund has successfully reclaimed some $200 million from monies allocated to pensioners in Nortel Networks Corp. bankruptcy proceedings. The silver lining for pensioners is that the decision by the Financial Services Tribunal finally puts an end to the uncertainty they’ve experienced since their benefits were cut off in 2010. “It would have been a very uphill climb for the pensioners to appeal the FST’s decision further,” says Mark Zigler, senior partner in...

The British Columbia Supreme Court has found that an individual who was the “directing mind of a company,” but not a trustee of its pension plan, was personally liable for a contribution shortfall because he “knowingly assisted” the company in breaches of its fiduciary duties. “The case is a heads-up, especially for small employers, to keep their accounts clean and pay their pension contributions in a timely fashion,” says Paul Litner, the chair of Osler Hoskin & Harcourt LLP’s pensions and...