Landmark settlement restores pensions for agricultural co-ops' workers

On July 29, 2008, a landmark settlement was completed that will largely restore the pensions of agricultural co-operatives' employees in Ontario. The settlement resulted in payments in excess of $40 million towards the deficit of the Participating Co-operatives of Ontario Trusteed Pension Plan. Payments came from the participating co-operatives as well as the Plan's administrators, custodians, and legal advisors, and included a substantial contribution from the Government of Ontario.

The Plan was at the center of a class action and regulatory hearing that were jointly settled and followed several months of mediation of the Financial Services Tribunal dispute by provincially-appointed mediator, Leslie MacLeod. The regulatory hearing arose out of a proposal by the Superintendent of Financial Services of Ontario that the participating co-operatives in the Plan (mostly small agricultural co-operatives) were jointly and severally liable for the Plan's approximately $60 million deficit upon wind up.

Peggy McCallum of Fasken Martineau represented 14 of the participating co-operatives in the mediation and, with Ronald Walker also of Fasken Martineau, in the settlement hearings before the Financial Services Tribunal and the court.