Defined Benefits PlansA defined benefit plan is the type of registered pension plan whereby the benefit to be paid at retirement is specified according to a formula stipulated in the plan text. The employer’s contributions are not predetermined, but are a function of the cost of providing the promised pension. The vast majority of registered pension plan members belong to “defined benefit plans”; about 4.6 million Canadian workers as of January 1, 2006. 59% of the members of these plans were in the public sector. These numbers are sourced from Statistics Canada Survey number 2609. |
