Your Early Retirement Benefits Arrangement
The Early Retirement Benefits Arrangement (ERBA) provides a supplementary benefit to those members who joined the Pension Plan before September 1, 2011, and who qualify for an unreduced early retirement pension under the terms of the Pension Plan, but whose pension is required to be reduced under the provisions of Canada’s Income Tax Act. This reduction affects pension benefits earned for Credited Service after 1991.
Specifically, if you retire before age 60 and do not qualify for an unreduced early retirement benefit under the 30 years of service or Rule of 80 provisions, a portion of your pension benefit will be paid under the ERBA in an amount equal to the early retirement reduction that would otherwise be required under the Income Tax Act.
You do not have to apply for an ERBA benefit. If your early retirement pension is affected by the Income Tax Act reduction requirement, you will automatically qualify for the ERBA benefit.
A portion of employer contributions to the Program are used to pay ERBA benefits as they fall due. The ERBA is governed by the same Board of Trustees as the Pension Plan. The ERBA is not a registered pension plan under either the Income Tax Act or The Pension Benefits Act of Manitoba.