Item - 2023.GG5.11

The General Government Committee:

1. Received the report (June 9, 2023) from the Controller, including the report entitled “The Toronto Fire Department Superannuation and Benefit Fund – Report on the Actuarial Valuation as at December 31, 2022", Attachment 1 (June 9, 2023) from the Controller to the report, prepared by RSM with respect to the Toronto Fire Department Superannuation and Benefit Fund and its underlying Plan, for information.

This report submits, for the Committee's information, a Funding Valuation as at December 31, 2022 on the Toronto Fire Department Superannuation and Benefit Fund (the Fund) prepared by RSM Canada LLP (RSM). The Fund finances the pension plan (the Plan). This valuation provides information on the automatic cost-of-living increase of 0.89% in pensioner benefits effective January 1, 2023, called for under By-Law 10649 as amended, governing the Plan and the Fund.

The Fire Pension Plan has specific criteria in its By-law which, if satisfied, grants members an automatic cost-of-living increase paid from the fund, and therefore Council is not required to approve the increase. So long as sufficient surpluses exist on both a Going Concern and Solvency basis, members are entitled to an increase comprised of the lesser of (a) The Plan's 5-year average rate of return less the discount rate used for the current year's Solvency valuation; or (b) the increase in the year-over-year level of the average Consumer Price Index (CPI) as published by Statistics Canada. In this case, the first criterion is the lesser of the two, and hence members are entitled to an automatic increase of 0.89%.

The provincial funding rules for defined-benefit pension plans which came into effect on May 1, 2018 are incorporated into the 2022 Valuation Report, which sets forth the financial position of the Fund for the year ended December 31, 2022 on Going Concern and Solvency bases and confirms that the Fund does not require any special payments by the City of Toronto.

The Charts below summarize the financial position of the Fund as at December 31, 2022 and December 31, 2021 based on the Actuarial Valuations for those years.

Going Concern Valuation – This type of valuation assumes that the Plan will continue to operate until all pensions are paid out.

Table 1: Going Concern Valuation ($ millions)

Solvency Valuation – This type of valuation assumes that the Plan was wound up on the valuation date (i.e., December 31st, 2022) and the assets used, to the extent necessary, to meet existing liabilities including the purchase of annuities for the pensioners and any unretired members.

Table 2: Solvency Valuation ($ millions)