On July 2, 2020, the department of Finance released draft legislation that would provide COVID-19 relief to employers who sponsor a Registered Pension Plan (RPP) or salary deferral leave plan for their employees to manage and maintain their benefit obligations through the crisis as follows:
adding temporary stop-the-clock rules to the conditions applicable to salary deferral leave plans for the period of March 15, 2020 to April 30, 2021;
removing restrictions that prohibit an RPP from borrowing money;
extending the deadline for decisions to retroactively credit pensionable service under a defined benefit plan or to make catch-up contributions to money purchase accounts;
permitting catch-up contributions to RPPs to be made in 2021 to the extent that 2020 required contributions had been reduced;
setting aside the 36-month employment condition in the definition “eligible period of reduced pay” for the purpose of using prescribed compensation to determine benefit or contribution levels; and
allowing wage rollback periods in 2020 to qualify as an eligible period of reduced pay for prescribed compensation purposes.