Human Resources Legislative Update
Ontario Proposes Regulatory Amendment Under ESA Permitting PRPP Differentiation Based on Age
Date: November 2, 2017
On October 23, 2017, the Ontario government published a proposed draft amendment to O. Reg. 286/01 made under the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA) to create a new exemption for pooled registered pension plans (PRPPs) with respect to age-based differentiation in certain circumstances.
Currently, the ESA prohibits employers from providing a pension plan that treats employees, their beneficiaries, survivors or dependants differently because of the age of the employee, subject to prescribed exemptions. The proposed regulatory amendment would add exemptions for PRPPs that differentiate because of age in:
- establishing requirements for when an individual may elect to receive variable payments, where such requirements comply with the federal PRPP legislation; or
- establishing requirements for when an administrator may transfer the funds in an individual’s PRPP account to a prescribed account, where such requirements comply with the federal PRPP legislation.
Comments on the proposed amendment are due by December 7, 2017.
