Is an employer bound by the terms of a pension brochure or summary even when the statements contained therein are at variance with the pension plan?

Manitoba, Canada


The following excerpt is from Dinney v. Great-West Life Assurance Co. et al., 2006 MBQB 247 (CanLII):

There is authority that an employer will be bound by the terms of a pension brochure or summary even when the statements contained therein are at variance with the terms of the pension plan itself. This is commented on by Cory J. in Schmidt v. Air Products Canada Ltd., 1994 CanLII 104 (SCC), [1994] S.C.J. No. 48. There the issue was whether the employees were entitled to share in the surplus of a pension fund after it had been wound up, and they had been given a brochure stating that “in the event that there is a surplus in the fund after all benefits have been paid, it is the company’s intention that the surplus will be distributed in an equitable manner to the employees active in the plan at the date of termination.”

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