Pension committee member

Before you start...

SPP Portal access rights vary depending on each person's role: each person is only granted access to sections required to complete his or her duties.

The same person can work on several pension plans or standard contracts and have different roles. The person is granted access rights accordingly.

Only the following persons can grant access to the SPP Portal to collaborators who need it to carry out their tasks related to a pension plan or a standard contract, as the case may be:

• SPP, SIPP and VRSP administrator's representatives
• contact persons for a LIRA or LIF.

First time accessing the SPP Portal

Pension plan administrators' representatives and persons authorized to complete the AIR are granted access allowing them to sign up pension committee members and update their contact information in the SPP Portal's Pension committee subsection.

To be granted access to the SPP Portal, you must provide one of those persons with your contact information and email address (personal email address) so that your name can be added to the list of pension committee members of a plan.

Once the information about you has been entered in the SPP Portal, an email from Retraite Québec will be sent, asking you to sign up for the SPP Portal.

If you do not have access to the SPP Portal for a plan of which you are a pension committee member, please contact the plan administrator's representative concerned. If that person confirms that the information about you has been entered in the Pension committee subsection, please contact Retraite Québec:

• by telephone
• by email.

Creating a user account

To create an account, click the Sign up now link.

Example

Then, enter your email address (personal email address) and click Send verification code.

Example

You will receive an email at the address you entered, which contains the verification code you need to complete your authentication.

Enter the verification code in the authentication window, then click Verify code.

The verification code is valid for approximately 5 minutes.

You cannot find the email?

Check your spam folder. It should be there. Drag it to your inbox: that way, the next time you receive emails from that source, they will be sent directly to your inbox.

Example

Once the code has been verified, you must enter and confirm a password and click Create.

The password must be between 12 and 64 characters and include at least 2 of the following characters:

• a lowercase letter
• a capital letter
• a number
• a symbol.

You are responsible for protecting the confidential information that allows you to log in to the SPP Portal. That information should not be disclosed to other persons of your organization or to external providers.

Logging in

When you click Go to the service, the login window will appear.

Enter your email address and your password, then click Sign in.

Example

The window below will appear. Click Send verification code.

You will receive an email at the address you entered, which contains the verification code you need to complete your authentication.

The verification code is valid for a approximately 5 minutes.

You cannot find the email?

Check your spam folder. It should be there. Drag it to your inbox: that way, the next time you receive emails from that source, they will be sent directly to your inbox.

You must enter the verification code in the authentication window, then click Verify code.

Once the code has been verified, you must click Continue to access the SPP Portal.

 

If you have a role in several plans or standard contracts, you must first choose the one to which you want to log in.

If you have several roles for the same plan or standard contract, be sure to select the appropriate one, because SPP Portal access rights differ depending on the role.

The homepage:

• allows you, if applicable, to select another plan, standard contract or role without having to sign out
• displays the icons that correspond to the sections to which you have access, depending on your role.

The menu displayed on the homepage can also be found on the top left of every page of the SPP Portal, which allows you to access other sections without having to return to the homepage.

Collaborators

This section allows you to consult the list of collaborators signed up for a plan. However, only the administrator's representative has access rights to change that section.

A collaborator's access depends on the role assigned to him or her. The possible roles are:

• Person authorized to complete the AIR
• Person authorized to send documents
• Auditor.

Person authorized to complete the AIR

A person authorized to complete the AIR has access to the following sections:

• Information on the pension plan
• Annual Information Return
• Payments.

The person can consult and change information in those sections, but cannot submit the AIR.

Several persons authorized to complete the AIR can be added for the same plan.

Person authorized to send documents

A person authorized to send documents only has access to the Submitting documents section. The person can add and consult the documents he or she has sent, but cannot consult the documents sent by other people.

Several persons authorized to send documents can be added for the same plan.

Auditor

An auditor only has access to the following subsections of the AIR:

• Consult, verify and submit the AIR to consult the AIR to answer the questions addressed to him or her
• Attach or consult a document to attach the reports to the AIR.

The auditor cannot make changes to the AIR or submit the return to Retraite Québec.

There can be only one auditor per plan.

Information on the pension plan

This section allows you to consult the information that Retraite Québec has concerning:

• the pension plan
• the administrator's representative
• the pension committee, if applicale
• the employers party to the plan.

However, only the administrator's representative and the persons authorized to complete the AIR have access rights to change that section.

Pension plan

This subsection provides certain general information that concerns the pension plan.

Pension plan administator's representative

This subsection provides the contact information of the plan administrator's representative.

There can only be one person representing the plan administrator.

If a new person is appointed to represent the plan administrator, you must inform us in writing so that we can make the change:

• through the SPP Portal's messaging service
• by email.
• by mail

Pension committee

This subsection is available only if the type of plan administrator is a pension committee. It allows you to consult the list of pension committee members for a plan. However, you do not have access to their contact information.

In the interest of protecting the personal information of pension committee members, their contact information is not visible in the printed or saved version of the AIR.

Employers

This subsection provides information of the employer or employers party to the plan.

If changes have been made to the list of employers (add, remove or change name), the status indicated on the right of the names of employers for which changes have been made will remain pending until Retraite Québec has received and registered an application for registration of amendments.

Therefore, if changes have not yet been registered, the total number of employers entered under the table may differ from the number indicated in the Total number of employers under the provisions of the plan field.

Four statuses are possible:

• Active (employer registered in accordance with the plan text)
• Awaiting changes
• Awaiting removal
• Awaiting addition.

Example

Annual information return

In this section, you can:

• consult the AIR for a given year
• add documents to the AIR
• verify the information in the AIR
• consult the PDF versions of AIRs submitted to Retraite Québec.

Consulting the AIR

Only AIRs whose fiscal year ended on 31 December 2018 or on a later date are available in the SPP Portal. To consult an AIR, you must first select the fiscal year in question.

Pension committee members and auditors cannot consult the information in an AIR until the person representing the administrator or a person authorized to complete the AIR has begun entering data.

The AIR is presented in several subsections. Context-sensitive help boxes are available to correctly complete most lines in the AIR. To consult the information they contain, click the icon  on the right of the corresponding line number.

Note that information for the previous year is listed in the right column. You can reduce the size of the column if necessary.

Once an AIR has been submitted to Retraite Québec, no more changes can be made to it. If changes need to be made to a return that has already been submitted, the administrator's representative must contact Retraite Québec:

• through the SPP Portal's messaging service
• by telephone
• by email.

Determining the requirement of a financial audit (subsection 3.3)

This subsection must be completed by the the person representing the plan administrator or by a person authorized to complete the AIR only if the plan meets these two criteria:

• It has less than 50 members and beneficiaries
• Its net assets are less than $1 million.

Otherwise, the lines of that subsection will not be accessible and the auditor will have to answer the questions addressed to him or her in the Consult, verify and submit the AIR subsection. The auditor's report on the audited financial statements for the plan and the report on supplementary matters arising from an audit must be enclosed with the AIR.

If the plan meets the two criteria listed above, the question on line 381 must be answered:

• If the answer is Yes, the date of the annual meeting during which the members and beneficiaries were informed of the intention not to have the financial report audited must be entered on line 381.0. Answers to the questions of lines 387 and 389 must also be provided.
• If the answer is No, it will not be possible to answer the questions on lines 387 and 389. The auditor must answer the questions addressed to him or her in the Consult, verify and submit the AIR subsection. The auditor's report on the audited financial statements for the plan and the report on supplementary matters arising from an audit must be enclosed with the AIR.

Attach or consult a document

This subsection allows you to consult or add documents to the AIR for a given year, including:

• the financial report and statements
• the auditor's report on the audited financial statements for the plan
• the report on supplementary matters arising from an audit
• any other document related to the AIR (additional information).

The documents must be in PDF or XLSX format (each document must be in a separate file and cannot exceed 25 MB).

If the AIR has not yet been submitted to Retraite Québec, the documents saved in the Attach or consult a document subsection will automatically be sent with the AIR. As long as the AIR and attached documents have not been submitted to Retraite Québec, a document can be deleted.

After the AIR has been submitted, you can still add documents in that subsection and send them to Retraite Québec. However, to delete a document that has already been submitted, you must contact Retraite Québec:

• through the SPP Portal's messaging service
• by telephone
• by email.

Consult, verify and submit the AIR

This subsection allows you to:

• be informed of the status of an AIR
• save an AIR in PDF format
• consult and verify all the information in an AIR.

Only the plan administrator's representative can submit the AIR to the auditor or Retraite Québec.

Status of the AIR

This information allows you to find out what stage the production process of the AIR has reached.

Example

 

The following statuses are possible:

• Being entered: The administrator's representative or the person authorized to complete the AIR has begun entering data.
• Being audited: The auditor is verifying the return.
• Audited: The auditor has finished verifying the return.

The AIR is submitted only once the administrator's representative has clicked the Submit to Retraite Québec button and has received confirmation that it has been submitted.

An AIR whose status is Audited is not submitted to Retraite Québec: it is considered as not filed, and additional fees can apply if the time period prescribed has not been complied with.

Saving the document in PDF format

You can save and print a draft version of the AIR in PDF format at any time, even if the return has not been finished.

• To save the PDF in French, you must sign in to the French SPP Portal, which provides you with a French interface.

• To save the PDF in English, you must sign in to the English SPP Portal, which provides you with an English interface.

As long as the AIR has not been submitted to Retraite Québec, you can save the PDF document in French or English, based on the language you choose when you sign in to the SPP Portal.

However, the language used when the AIR is submitted to Retraite Québec will determine the language in which the PDF document will be generated definitely. Once you have submitted the AIR, you can no longer obtain a PDF document in another language.

Verifying the AIR

By verifying the return, you ensure it does not contain any errors or inconsistencies. Two types of error messages may appear at the top of the page:

• errors to be corrected (in red)
• warning messages (in yellow).

Before the AIR is submitted, all errors indicated in red must have been corrected.

If you return to a section of the SPP Portal to consult information, you must verify the return again when you come back to the Consult, verify and submit the AIR subsection.

Questions for the auditor only

If the plan's financial report is subject to an audit, the auditor must complete lines 387 through 389 and the answers will be posted for consultation purposes only.

See submitted AIRs

This subsection allows you to consult all the AIRs that have been submitted through the SPP Portal to Retraite Québec (initial or corrected versions, as applicable). The language used in each PDF document corresponds to the language used when the AIR was submitted.

Electronic messaging

Each plan has an access to an electronic messaging service grouping all messages exchanged between Retraite Québec and individuals who have access to the messaging service. Therefore, the messaging service is linked to the plan and not to your role, which means that all individuals with access to the service can see the messages that were exchanged.

In this section, you can:

• send information in a message
• send documents and applications in a message
• receive messages
• consult messages.

The person representing the plan administrator is the main person with whom Retraite Québec communicates. Therefore, a notification will be sent to that person by email when Retraite Québec

• sends a new message
• replies to a message.

A notification will also be sent to the person who sent the first message of the exchange, if it is not the administrator's representative.

Never send confidential information in a message.

Any information that allows an individual to be identified is considered to be confidential, for example, an individual's Social Insurance Number, date of birth, home address or salary. That type of information must be sent in a document attached to a message.

For more information on the way to send documents containing confidential information, consult the New message section of this guide.

Inbox

From the inbox, you can consult messages that Retraite Québec has sent.

With a few exceptions, Retraite Québec no longer mails letters; they are now filed in the SPP Portal in PDF format in the Documents section and not in the Electronic messaging section.

Example

• The number of unread messages is entered on the right of the inbox in the left menu.
• The search field allows you to search by subject or content of messages.
• Sorting and filters are available in every column.
• A closed black enveloppe indicates that the message has not yet been consulted.

Drafts

You can save a message so that you can send it at a later time. In that case, your message will be stored in the Drafts subsection. You can only consult drafts that you will have saved yourself.

Example

If you delete a draft, you will not be able to restore it; it will be deleted permanently.

Sent items

You can consult all the messages sent to Retraite Québec from this box, regardless of who sent them.

New message

The electronic messaging service allows you to send information, documents and applications to Retraite Québec. Please note that the AIR cannot be sent through the electronic messaging service. It must be sent through the Consult, verify and submit an AIR subsection under the Annual information return section.

To write a new message:

1. click the New message button
2. choose a topic from the drop-down list
3. complete the displayed fields
4. write your message
5. if necessary, add a document or documents
   1. choose a type of document (related to the subject of your message)
   2. select Yes or No as to whether the document contains confidential information
   3. select the document(s) to upload
   4. Repeat steps a to c for each document to be added.

Document containing confidential information

Any information that allows a person to be identified is considered to be confidential. For example, if you add a document that contains an individual's Social Insurance Number, date of birth, home address or salary, you must select Yes on the right of the confidential information indicator. Therefore, only the plan administrator's representative and Retraite Québec will be able to consult the document.

In the case of certain types of documents likely to contain confidential information, Yes has already been selected by default on the right of the confidential information indicator. This is the case, among other things, for the register of salaries, trustee's statement and statement of benefits. Please note that even if Yes has been selected by default for a particular document, you can always select No if it does not contain any confidential information.

Only documents in one of the following formats can be sent through the electronic messaging service: PDF, XLSX (25 MB maximum per document).

You can send several documents related to the same subject in one message. However, each document must be in a separate PDF file.

You then have two options, either you:

• Save your message in Drafts
• Send the message to Retraite Québec. Once the message has been sent, it is filed in the sent items box. The attached documents are automatically listed in the Documents section.

Example

Documents

In this section, you can consult all documents exchanged via the SPP Portal, including letters sent by Retraite Québec. With a few exceptions, Retraite Québec no longer mails letters.

You can also consult the documents added by the persons authorized to send documents.

However, if Yes is selected on the right of the confidential information indicator, pension committee members cannot consult documents containing confidential information. They will see the name of the document displayed in the list, but will not be able to open it.

To send documents to Retraite Québec, you must use the electronic messaging service.

You can filter results by subject, date, document type, etc. You can also combine search topics to narrow down your results.

When Retraite Québec adds documents that were sent otherwise than via the SPP Portal, for example by mail, the date indicated in the Added on field corresponds to the date on which Retraite Québec received the document and not to the date on which Retraite Québec added it to the SPP Portal.

Payments

This section refers to the Payment of fees page on Retraite Québec's website, which explains the terms of payment of fees related to a supplemental pension plan, a VRSP, a LIRA or a LIF.

If you would like to pay the fees online, you must indicate the reference number assigned by Retraite Québec. This number is usually indicated on the request for payment letter. If you do not have it, please contact Retraite Québec:

• through the SPP Portal's messaging service
• by telephone
• by email.

• LIRA: Locked-in retirement account
• LIF: Life income fund
• AIR: Annual information return
• SPP: Supplemental pension plan
• SIPP: Simplified pension plan
• VRSP: Voluntary retirement savings plan