In response to the challenges posed by the pandemic, we made several Plan changes last year to ensure that our members’ pensions remained protected and continued to grow. Those changes wouldn’t have been possible without your support.

As an example, during the Ontario state of emergency order from March 17 to July 24, 2020, we offered members the opportunity to continue building contributory service at no cost to them, or you, if they were:

• on unpaid COVID-19-related emergency leaves
• within the first 15 weeks of unpaid health leaves

Nearly 50% of our employers had employees that benefited from this change and we want to thank you for all your work in providing us with the information we needed to grant these benefits. During the emergency period, we were able to provide more than:

• 7,000 members with this benefit
• 250,000 days of free contributory service

Members who were eligible and granted this service received a personalized letter from HOOPP late April indicating the total contributory service they earned for this benefit.

We are proud to have supported our members in this way. Together, we were able to ensure that their pensions continued to grow through these challenging conditions. If you have any questions about the 2020 state of emergency service, please contact your Employer Specialist.

As this continues to be a very challenging time, we want to ensure our members’ pensions are protected and can continue to grow. For that reason, there are two new eligible periods of continued service for members on unpaid emergency leaves during the two declared Ontario state of emergency periods in 2021.

Qualifying members on unpaid emergency leaves, or within the first 15 weeks of unpaid health leaves during the Ontario state of emergency periods from January 12 to February 9, 2021 or the current emergency period starting on April 7, 2021, will receive contributory HOOPP service at no cost to them, or you as their employer.

This benefit was provided to members during the 2020 state of emergency, and it will now be provided for the two declared periods of provincial emergency in 2021.

Please continue to report all health and emergency leaves as you normally would through HOOPP Insight. Nothing further is required from you at this time. Your Employer Specialist will reach out to you in the coming months to provide direction about any additional information that may be required for eligible members and how to provide it to HOOPP. Thank you for your feedback on the 2020 MDC PA process, we have taken your input into consideration and are streamlining the process in 2021.

We will continue to monitor provincial announcements relating to possible future declared emergency periods and provide you with up-to-date information regarding members’ pensions.

If you have any questions, please contact your Regional Manager.

Visit the Learning Centre for more information.

As a HOOPP employer, you are part of one of the world’s top pension plans. While 2020 was a year of uncertainty, HOOPP continued to perform well and deliver on our pension promise. Through it all, our goal remained to provide members and employers with pension peace of mind.

Here are a few of our key milestones from the year.

The Fund grew to $100B

The HOOPP Fund continued to perform well despite dramatic market volatility and surpassed $100 billion in assets before year end.

600+ employers trust HOOPP

HOOPP is now offered by over 600 employers across Ontario. That growth reflects the strength and stability of the Plan and shows what an important benefit it is that you offer your employees.

The HOOPP community is 400K strong

In 2020, HOOPP celebrated its 60th anniversary of providing retirement security to a large and diverse membership of Ontario healthcare workers. We are also proud to celebrate another significant milestone: we now serve 400,000 members.

HOOPP’s membership growth has accelerated in recent years. In 2003, we crossed the 200,000 mark and saw a steady increase in membership over the next 12 years, surpassing 300,000 members by 2015. And, in just the last five years, our membership grew by an additional 100,000 members due to the growing healthcare sector and more employers in Ontario offering the Plan to their employees.

HOOPP is improving pension benefits

Based on the Plan’s strong performance over time, HOOPP’s Board of Trustees has approved a benefit improvement for active members. Effective Apr. 1, 2021, members who were active in the Plan as of that date will receive an increase in their lifetime pension for any contributory service in 2018, 2019 and/or 2020. That means eligible members will get even more from their HOOPP pension when they retire. We are very pleased to be able to provide this benefit at a time when active members are feeling such stress and hardship. Learn more about the benefit improvement.

To help you share this information with your employees, we’ve prepared a short notice, available in English and French, that you can post on your intranet. It will direct employees to our benefit improvement article and 2020 Highlights.

If you would like more detailed information about HOOPP’s results, you can view our 2020 Highlights.

The Bulletin Board

Welcome to the Bulletin Board, a regular feature of Employer News. Here is where you'll find reminders, the latest updates and a sneak peek at what's coming up.

Successful member data collection (MDC):

We had another successful MDC cycle last year – a big thank you to everyone for completing and submitting your MDC information to HOOPP. Members now have up-to-date benefit information through HOOPP Connect and we are in the process of issuing 2020 annual statements for members. Your annual Statement of Account is also well underway. Your Employer Specialist will notify you once it has been posted on HOOPP Insight and can help answer any questions you may have.

This year was unlike previous years, requiring additional processes to support members who were eligible and granted contributory service due to the declared state of emergency. We recognize and thank you for your efforts in the early submission of MDC information and your prompt verification of information when needed. This helped ensure this information was accurately captured so that we could recalculate member pension adjustments to reflect this service.

2021 Member education seminars:

HOOPP’s popular member education seminars are back in 2021 and continue to be delivered as webcasts due to the current environment. We have put together a package of promotional materials for you to share with your employees. These resources are available for you to download.

Administration reviews:

Each year, we meet with all our employers to conduct a review of the administration of the Plan. These reviews help ensure that employers are able to successfully meet their day-to-day administrative obligations and also help us identify opportunities to further support them, as needed.

Our review has shown that employers are doing an excellent job of meeting the requirements of administering the Plan. We thank you for your hard work and attention to detail, especially in such difficult circumstances. Your effort on behalf of members plays an important part in helping us deliver on our pension promise to them and to you.

COMING SOON: Enhancing your employer education:

To continue to support you in your administration of the Plan, we will be launching a certification program for employers geared toward deepening your knowledge of the Plan and its administration. This program will be tailored for both executives and administrators so that you can get the most out of the HOOPP Plan as a key component of your benefit program. A formally recognized certificate will be issued upon completion of the program. Although we aim to start offering this program in 2022, the timing will depend on the current environment. Stay tuned for more updates.