Sponsors Corporation

No. As of January 1, 2021, an OMERS employer can elect to provide NRA 60 benefits to all or a class of paramedics. The approved change gives paramedics the option to negotiate NRA 60 participation as part of the collective bargaining process (for unionized employees). 

Moving from NRA 65 to NRA 60 means being eligible for a more generous early retirement provision from the Plan. Members with NRA 60 benefits will pay higher contributions, which will be matched by their employers. An NRA 60 member can start a pension (for reasons other than disability) five years earlier than a member under NRA 65. There are also differences between the early retirement reduction formula and bridge benefit.
 

A member who moves to NRA 60 will immediately begin paying higher contribution rates. There is also a 25% service adjustment that applies to the member’s past credited service, which reduces the number of credited years of service considered in NRA 60. This accounts for the lower contribution rates paid during the member’s years of credited service earned in NRA 65 – before the member switched to NRA 60. The member will have the option to buy back past credited service earned in NRA 65 to match its value in NRA 60. This is called a “conversion cost” for the service adjustment. The conversion cost reflects the difference in the actuarial value of the member’s benefit at his or her earliest unreduced retirement date for NRA 65 and NRA 60. 

Effective January 1, 2021, members with less than 35 years of credited service prior to the effective date are required to make mandatory contributions beyond their 35^th year. Their contributions would continue and their employers would match those contributions. 
 

Members who meet the 35-year cap before January 1, 2021, would be subject to the limit on credited service. Their contributions – as well as their employers’ matching contributions – would stop and they would not be eligible to accrue (earn) additional credited service in the Plan beyond their 35^th year.