If you stop working for a participating employer, so that no further contributions are made to the plan on your behalf, you will be terminated from the plan at the end of two calendar years in which you have worked a total of less than 350 hours in each year.

Vesting service is credited at the rate of 1 year for each calendar year in which you work 350 or more hours.

If you break service and are below age 55, you may leave your pension in the plan and receive a monthly pension when you retire or you may elect to have your vested pension cancelled, and in lieu thereof, transfer the value of that pension to: your new employer’s pension plan, provided that plan is willing to accept such a transfer; or

a “locked-in” retirement account (“locked-in” means that it cannot be cashed out and must be used to provide a lifetime pension); or to purchase a lifetime annuity, which may commence at any time after your 55th birthday.

Under certain very limited circumstances prescribed under the BC pension laws, in the case of small pensions or pensions with small values, you may elect to receive your commuted value as either a cash lump sum or transfer it to a non-locked in RRSP.

There is a time limit in which to make this decision.

If your membership in the plan is terminated and you subsequently rejoin the plan at some later date, you will be treated as a new member for all purposes of the plan and your prior and new periods of service will not be combined for purposes of determining eligibility for benefits or calculating the amounts of benefits.

If you die before retirement, a lump sum death benefit is payable equal to the value of the pension you had accumulated to the time of your death. If you were married or party to a common-law relationship at the time of your death, the death benefit will be paid to your spouse. If there is no surviving spouse, the death benefit will be paid to your designated beneficiary, or, if you have not designated a beneficiary, to your estate.

Pension credits earned under the plan may be increased from time to time, subject to the financial resources available to the Trustees.