MPFCanada

Pension Contributions are made on your behalf by your employers. The contributions made on your behalf are based on your dates of employment and your scale wages or, if you are a local officer or employee, your earnings. Contributions made to the Fund are held in a trust fund to provide benefits to eligible members and their beneficiaries, and to pay Fund administrative expenses.

No. Employee contributions are not required or permitted. For the Plan to be considered a registered pension plan, the Income Tax Act requires that there be a bona fide employer-employee relationship for every member who participates in the Plan.

No. Pension contributions cannot be made on negotiated fees. Contributions can only be made pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement, or pursuant to local engagement contracts, which are based on CFM/AFM scale wages.

No. The 18% rate cap complies with the Income Tax Act rule that limits total contributions to a registered pension plan to 18% of compensation. Keep in mind that, although contributions up to 18% of scale are permitted, your employer’s contribution rate is limited to the rate specified in the collective bargaining agreement or local tariff of fees.

If you are temporarily working outside of Canada for a Canadian employer, your employer can continue making pension contributions to the Plan. Note that the Income Tax Act limits the length of time that you can receive pension contributions to the Plan while working in the U.S.

If you are working in the US for a US Employer you may, subject to the terms of any applicable collective bargaining agreement, have pension contributions remitted to the Canadian Fund.

If you have worked in Canada and the U.S., and pension contributions have been remitted on your behalf to the Canadian Plan and to the U.S. Plan, both plans have provisions that allow the credit in one plan to be recognized as a credit in the other for eligibility and vesting purposes. Please see the Plan Summary for more information or contact the Fund Office by email.

Contributions to the Plan are made based on Collective Bargaining Agreements (agreements between the CFM/AFM and employers). If the agreement under which you’re covered allows contributions to continue while you are on an approved leave of absence, then contributions will continue. Under the Income Tax Act, there are limits on how long contributions can be made during an approved leave of absence.

The Income Tax Act requires pension adjustments (PAs) to be reported for all pension contributions made to the Plan. Each year the amount of the employer contributions made on your behalf to the Fund should be reported on your T4/T4A in the box titled “Pension Adjustment.” This amount is used to reduce your RRSP contribution room in the following year.

The Fund is not your employer and therefore does not report Pension Adjustments. Under the Income Tax Act, it is the employer’s responsibility to report the PA.

Yes. If you continue working under covered employment after you start receiving pension payments, pension contributions for you will continue being made for you. Up until the end of the calendar year in which you turn 71, you will continue to receive your pension from the Plan and may receive an additional pension benefit based on the employer contributions made to the post retirement account. Here is more information on the Post Retirement account.

If you continue working in covered employment after December 31 in the year you become age 71, the Fund is prohibited by the Income Tax Act from accepting contributions made on your behalf. If your employer does make a contribution on your behalf to the Fund, MPF Canada will refund the contribution to your employer.