At the AcSOC meeting on February 21-22, 2019, the PSAB Chair advised that the third ITC, Employment Benefits: Non-traditional Pension Plans, had been issued on October 19, 2018 with a comment period end-date of February 1, 2019. He noted that Canada is at the forefront of non-traditional pension plans. These are plans that involve employers sharing different degrees of risk related pension benefits with other parties, including employees and other employers. 60 comment letters were received as of February 7, 2019 and further responses are expected because some stakeholders (including actuaries, pension plans and unions) have requested extensions of the comment deadline. Comments received indicate diverse views from different stakeholder groups.

The Employment Benefits Task Force is expected to meet quarterly in 2019-2020 to deliberate responses for the three ITCs that were issued. PSAB intends to review the draft Statement of Principles for Employment Benefits in March 2020. In response to questions, the PSAB Chair said that he shares the same concern in terms of the time-to-market issue. He also noted that he had several discussions with the PSAB Director and the Employment Benefits Task Force Chair to expedite the process in finalizing the standard.

Review the meeting summary on the AcSOC's Web site.