Pension Committee – Page 2

Are you getting the most out of your pension plan?

*** This bulletin is directed to those hired after November 7, 2011 ***

Employees hired after November 7, 2011 at both Air Canada Mainline and Air Canada Rouge are enrolled in a Hybrid Pension Plan. The Hybrid Plan is a combination plan, which contains a Defined Benefit (DB) portion and a Defined Contribution (DC) portion.

For the DB portion you contribute 2.0%, 2.5% or 3.0%, depending on your years of continuous service. The Company contributes the amounts necessary to ensure that the funding of the plan meets the requirements of the Pension Benefits Standards Act and its regulations at all times. You earn DB retirement benefits based on a pre-determined formula using your allowable service and compensation. There are no investment decisions to make on this portion as the employer is responsible for any investment risk.

The DC portion is based on a combination of employee and employer contributions. This is where a decision is necessary on your part. Depending on your years of service, you get to set your level of pension contribution between 1.5% to 3% and the employer matches this between 100% to 175%, also depended on years of service. In order to maximize your DC portion, you should be contributing the maximum you can since the employer matches your contributions and if you’re contributing less, you’re losing out on money.

Let’s take a member with 5 years of service earning $40,000 per year. This employee has the option of contributing 1.5%, 2%, or 2.5%. The employer at this stage matches contributions at 175%. The below table outlines the DC Investment at each contribution level.

Contribution Level	1.5%	2.0%	2.5%
Employee Contribution	$600	$800	$1,000
Employer Contribution	$1,050	$1,400	$1,750
Total DC Investment	$1,650	$2,200	$2,750

As outlined in the above scenario, the member could be losing up to $700 per year in employer contributions if they are not maxing out their contribution. In order to update or check your DC contribution level, login to your Manulife account, under the “My Account” heading select “View/Change My Payroll Deduction Amount”.

In Solidarity,

Your Component Pension Committee

AC pension initiative to provide annuities for pension plan members

As you may have heard or read, Air Canada (AC) is planning to establish AC Life Insurance in 2019 and to annuitize pensions for AC plan members slowly by buying blocks of annuities over 10 to 15 years beginning in the second half of 2019. AC’s explanation of their plan is on the home page […]

Pension links

CPP Canadian Pension Plan: https://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/eng/isp/cpp/cpptoc.shtml OAS Old Age Security: https://www.servicecanada.gc.ca/eng/sc/oas/pension/oldagesecurity.shtml RRQ: Régie des rentes du Quebec: https://www.rrq.gouv.qc.ca/fr Other Website and Info Equifax Canada – Consumer Information Center If you would like to obtain a copy of your credit report immediately, for a fee, you can receive real-time on-line access to your personal credit report, credit […]

pensions

MERCER OneView: For Pension Estimates and other Pension Plan Information

Pension estimates can be done thru the Aeronet portalAeronet address – https://acaeronet.aircanada.ca Follow these steps: Sign in to the Aeronet Select My Hr from the tool bar at the top of the page On the left side of the page in the My Pension section, select Information and Tools Select Define Benefit to do the […]

pensions

A brief explanation of your AC CUPE and CAIL CUPE pension plans:

Air Canada flight attendants automatically become members of the pension plan when they begin their employment with Air Canada. For former CAIL employees the plan was not mandatory until 2007. The AC pension plans are defined benefit plans that provide the pension plan member with a set pension benefit when they retire from the company. […]

pensions