Benefit and Pension Lawyers | FMC Law Firm | Disability, Retirement Compensation, Pension Regulation and Administration, Business and Employee Pension Plans

Pensions | Benefits

In the complex world of Canadian pensions regulation and administration, clients need a law firm that can lead them through the maze. If your pension plan is regulated in Quebec but you have members in Ontario and Alberta, you need a national law firm. If your industry is federally regulated but you have divisions that operate under provincial regulations, you need a law firm with experience in both. If special tax or investment rules apply, you need a full service law firm that can bring in tax and securities expertise when needed. If you are buying an insolvent business with past pension or retiree benefits, or if you need help with any aspect of employee benefits of a company that is in financial difficulty, you need a law firm that has a team of insolvency, labour and pension experts who have worked on Canada's most prominent corporate insolvencies.

In Canada, that law firm is Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP (FMC).

Our Pensions and Benefits Group is one of the most experienced in Canada. We act for private and public sector employers with both unionized and non-unionized workforces. We advise on the pension issues involved in mergers and acquisitions. We represent clients before courts and tribunals across the country. We help employers, administrators, trustees and pension committees understand their options and responsibilities and structure their programs to deal with today’s challenges as well as tomorrow’s. Our primary concern is prompt, effective response that results in cost-efficient solutions to our clients’ problems.

Representative Work

Counsel to Capital Power Income L.P. on its $1.1 billion acquisition by Atlantic Power Corporation

Counsel to Teledyne Technologies Incorporated on its $337 million acquisition of DALSA Corporation (February 2011)

Counsel to Grant Forest Products Inc. on the CCAA and US Bankruptcy Court approved acquisition of its OSB facilities by Georgia-Pacific LLC for US$400 million

Nortel Networks – Canadian Counsel for the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of Nortel Networks Inc. and certain of its direct and indirect subsidiaries in the cross-border CCAA/Chapter 11 proceedings

Counsel to a committee of executives who are responsible for monitoring the investments of hundreds of millions of dollars in pension assets, who need advice on their potential personal liability

Assisting a new, U.S.-based owner of a Canadian business to understand and limit the liabilities associated with its newly acquired pension plans

Establishing procedures for governance of more than a billion dollars of pension assets in several pension plans, for a business that recently acquired several divisions

Negotiating with unions, pension regulators, and former employees for a number of employers who are dealing with the “Monsanto” requirement to determine and distribute surplus relating to partial wind-ups of pension plans

Counsel to Industry Canada with respect to the Government of Canada's role as one of the lenders involved in Air Canada’s arrangements to raise $1.02 billion in additional liquidity through a series of financings and other transactions

Counsel to Armtec Infrastructure Income Fund on its $48.4 million acquisition of Pre-Con Inc. its $45 million acquisition of the assets of Groupe Tremca Inc. and the $120 million acquisition of Con-Force

Represented Canadian manufacturer on claim by multiple plaintiffs concerning obligation to continue funding of retiree health benefits

Successfully represented Kraft Canada Inc. before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Kraft Canada Inc. v. Karen Pitsadiotis, Canada’s first decision to apply the doctrine of rectification to correct an error in the text of a pension plan

Represented Armtec Infrastructure Income Fund on the $120 million acquisition of Con-Force, the related $60 million public offering and on the $105 million amended/restated credit facility

Counsel to Canada Post regarding significant administration issues including service buybacks, interpretations of benefit entitlements, and negotiation of third party agreements

Successfully negotiated and implemented for AFG Industries a significant pension surplus sharing deal

Advise on ongoing basis the pension committees of large Canadian employers, including American Express and Bridgestone Firestone

Obtained favourable ruling on surplus distribution from terminated Quebec pension plan

Advisor to an international pipeline operator in respect of its pension and benefit plans

Counsel to large Canadian unionized employers engaged in multi-million dollar dispute regarding calculation of pension benefits

Defence counsel for a pension plan sponsor in the leading Ontario appellate case dealing with a novel issue concerning surplus dilutions resulting from plan mergers on the sale of a business

Counsel to several multi-employer pension plans and benefit plans established for the members of various trade unions

Advisors to employers and employees in respect of the creation and maintenance of retirement compensation arrangements (RCAs) and supplementary executive retirement plans (SERPs)

Publications

Pension Update - Law Society of Upper Canada: “The Six-Minute Employment Lawyer”

"A Second Helping, Ontario Pension Reform", Focus on Pensions | Benefits, October 2010

Mergers and Acquisitions: Acquiring a Canadian Company - September 2011

Dealing with Pension Issues in a Canadian Insolvency

Freedom 55 Lost? The Recent Treatment of Pensions in Insolvency Proceedings

Navigating Pension and Benefit Issues on Termination of Employment