Who’s It For?

Employers who have at least five eligible employees, and who do not already offer all their employees the possibility of contributing to a retirement savings plan through payroll deductions, are required to offer a VRSP. Employers required to offer a VRSP have to comply within a specific time frame, which is determined by the number of employees they have.

As of:	An employer with:	Must set up a VRSP and register their eligible employees at the latest by:
June 30, 2016	20 or more eligible employees	December 31, 2016
June 30, 2017	Between 10 and 19 eligible employees	December 31, 2017
A date to be determined by the government	Between 5 and 9 eligible employees	A date after December 31, 2017 to be determined by the government

Employers with fewer than five eligible employees can also offer a VRSP, but are not obligated to do so.

Employers that are not required to offer a VRSP on the initial set up dates but that subsequently become required to do so (by hiring more employees, for example) will have one year to set up their VRSP.

Once an employer is required to comply with this obligation, it must continue to offer the VRSP as long as there are employees enrolled in the plan, even if the number of employees drops below the exemption threshold of five employees.

Employers not covered

Employers who mainly carry out activities in one of the following categories, which fall under federal jurisdiction, may not set up a VRSP:

• Telecommunications
• Federal Crown corporations
• Banks
• Naval ship building
• Interprovincial and international transportation
• Many First Nations activities
• Airports, air transportation
• Grain elevators and pipelines crossing provincial borders

These employers can instead set up a federal pooled registered pension plan (PRPP) or another type of group retirement savings plan.

Eligible employees

An eligible employee is a person who:

• is 18 years of age or older
• works full-time or part-time for an employer
• carries out work in Quebec, or works outside Quebec but resides in Quebec
• has at least one year of continuous service

These employees are automatically enrolled in the plan by their employer. Consequently, no action is required on their part to join the VRSP.

Eligible employees can opt out of the plan within 60 days of being informed by iA Financial Group that they have been enrolled. After that time, the employer begins automatically deducting contributions from the employee’s pay and remitting them to iA Financial Group.

Other employees

Employees not subject to automatic enrolment can also join the VRSP offered by their employer if they work in Quebec. To do so, these employees must contact their employer to obtain the appropriate form.

Among the two million workers who do not have access to a private group retirement plan, nearly 600,000 are self-employed. Although they are not required to join a VRSP, self-employed workers are able to join a VRSP on their own and thus benefit from what the plan has to offer. Self-employed workers can join the Industrial Alliance VRSP directly on this website. 

All individuals who have eligible income and who wish to save for retirement can join a VRSP on their own. They are therefore able to benefit from all of the advantages of the VRSP, even if their employer doesn’t offer one. Individual savers can join the VRSP of the administrator of their choice, and can join the Industrial Alliance VRSP directly on this website.

Associations, professional orders and any other group can set up a VRSP for their members. Employers who are members of such an association, professional order or group and have signed an agreement allowing their employees to enrol in its VRSP are not required to set up their own VRSP. They are however subject to other obligations, such as that regarding the automatic enrolment of their eligible employees.