32. Any employer who is a party to a flexible pension plan shall undertake, in writing, to pay, in a lump sum, to each member who is his employee, a sum equal to the excess optional ancillary contributions that may not be refunded directly to the member from the pension fund, insofar as the provisions of the plan no longer allow the formation of benefits with all or part of the said contributions. The excess optional ancillary contributions are equal to the difference, on the date of the conversion of the optional ancillary contributions into optional ancillary benefits, between the value of the said contributions and the value of the benefits arising from an option of the member or the application of paragraph 3 of section 28 or section 30. The value of the optional ancillary benefits shall be calculated by using the assumptions referred to in section 33.
The employer’s undertaking referred to in the first paragraph extends to the member’s spouse insofar as, where excess optional ancillary contributions are included in the member’s benefits that may be partitioned or where there is a transfer under section 107 or 110 of the Act, the employer shall pay to the spouse, in completion of the sum owing to the spouse following a partition or transfer, a portion of those contributions pro rata to the value of the benefits allocated to the spouse with respect to the total value of the benefits that may be partitioned or transferred. In such case, the sum paid by the employer to the said spouse is determined in the manner provided for in the first paragraph, with the necessary modifications.
The undertaking referred to in the preceding paragraphs shall be sent to the pension committee, which shall attach a copy thereof to the application submitted to Retraite Québec, in accordance with section 24 of the Act, for the registration of a plan referred to in this section or an amendment intended to exempt a plan from the application of the provisions of the Act referred to in section 28. A copy of the undertaking as well as a notice mentioning the time limit provided for in subparagraph 3 of the first paragraph of section 29 and describing the risks related to the payment of optional ancillary contributions, particularly those resulting from the date on which retirement was taken and the member’s characteristics on that date as well as the interest rate used when the conversion or the transfer of the benefits took place, shall also be attached to the documents sent to the members and to the employees eligible for membership in accordance with section 111 of the Act. The said undertaking shall also mention that in the event of the member’s death, payment shall be made to his spouse, or in the absence of a spouse, to his successors. For the application of this section, the spouse of a member is the person who meets the conditions provided for in section 85 of the Act.
Subject to section 45.1 of the Act, the excess optional ancillary contributions shall bear interest, between the dates of their determination and their payment, at the rate applicable to additional voluntary contributions in accordance with section 44 of the Act. The member may request payment of the sum corresponding to the excess optional ancillary contributions from the date of their determination. Once the employer has made the payment required under this section, he notifies the pension committee in writing thereof. The balance of the contributions then becomes nil.
O.C. 1290-99, s. 1; O.C. 1151-2002, s. 21; O.C. 436-2004, s. 9.