December 2025 Roundup - Read the Employer News

In this edition

Holiday office closure

CAAT's office will be closed on the following dates:

  • Friday afternoon, December 12, 2025
  • Wednesday afternoon, December 24, 2025
  • Thursday, December 25, 2025
  • Friday, December 26, 2025
  • Monday, December 29, 2025
  • Tuesday, December 30, 2025
  • Thursday, January 1, 2026

The office will re-open on Friday, January 2, 2026.

Updates and reminders

2026 rates and parameters

CAAT has updated the Rates at a glance page on our website with important rates and parameters that will impact 2026 calculations. These will help you update your payroll systems as needed.

Contact your Pension Analyst for any questions.

Submission deadlines for 2025 data

For employers working directly with CAAT:

  • Final 2025 payroll files are due by Friday, January 30, 2026.
  • Submissions of 2025 data via the Data Collection Tool (DCT) are due by Friday, March 6, 2026.

For employers working with an administration partner:

Please provide your 2025 year-end files to CAAT in time to meet your pension adjustment due date.

Need additional support? Register for our January education sessions on year-end data submission.

Non-contributing members reports due December 31

Read this if… you are an Ontario college employer

Ontario College employers are reminded to report employees who are not regular full-time (OTRFT) members and have not contributed to the Plan in the last 12 months. After processing all reports, CAAT will follow up with employers and issue EOM letters to members and/or option packages, as applicable.

If you have up to 25 members to report, please send the data through PAL. If you have more than 25 members to report, please use the template available in the Forms library of the Employer Manual and submit the file using Message Centre in PAL or S-Doc. 

Please remember: Email is not a secure method of communication. If you have difficulty using the portals or S-Doc, please reach out to your Pension Analyst.

Thank you to employers who submitted reports by October 31. The next due date is December 31, 2025.

2025 OPSEU Full-time Support Strike

CAAT is actively processing pension purchase packages for members impacted by the strike. Thank you for providing the data required for us to process these packages.

Member packages are currently targeted for delivery in January/February 2026.  If members have any questions, please have them contact the Member Care Centre. They can also refer to the Support Centre article, Your pension after the 2025 OPSEU Support Staff Strike or watch the recording of our member information session.

Please refer to the employer FAQ document in the Employer Manual for common administration questions for members impacted by the strike. If you require further clarification or support, please contact your Pension Analyst.

Upcoming events

Employer Education Sessions
(for employers working directly with CAAT)

January 13: Year-end reporting (DBplus only)

This webinar will provide the year-end reporting items required for 2025, including pension adjustments, for all employers who report data to CAAT using the payroll-based reporting (PBR) process.

REGISTER (1 p.m. – 2 p.m. EST)

January 15: Data Collection Tool (DCT) Open Q&A (DBprime and DBplus)

Since there are no changes to the DCT this year, we will not be offering our usual webinar training sessions. Instead, we are offering a live Q&A session where employers can ask questions about the DCT and learn about helpful resources, including the DCT Checklist, Guide, and Tips/FAQ sheet. More details will be shared in the coming weeks. Past DCT webinars and demos are always available on the CAAT website.

REGISTER (10 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. EST)

Portal corner

Employer reports available

A fact sheet including tips for understanding the reports is available from your employer Pension Analyst.

Read this if: you are an employer who works directly with CAAT and uses PAL

We added a reporting feature to the employer portal in 2024 to better support plan administration tasks. Employers can run and download five different standard reports:

  1. Active members: Displays all members who have an active status in the selected period and who have not terminated or retired.
  2. In-year data reported: Includes any payroll data provided to CAAT during a specified period. Employers can select only a calendar year as the date range.
  3. Other than regular full-time (OTRFT): Displays all members who are OTRFT, including those who are active or who had an event occur (e.g., termination, retirement, etc.) within a selected date range.
  4. Member enrolments: Displays all members who are enrolled with the Plan within a selected date range.
  5. Employment status: Displays all members’ employment status changes in the database within a selected date range. 

Planned outages

PAL will be unavailable for maintenance from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. EST on the following days:

  • December 31
  • January 14
  • February 11
  • March 11
  • April 8
  • May 6

Your Q&A Corner

Q: Can a CAAT participating employer enrol an employee who is working remotely outside of Canada?

A: Yes, as long as certain membership criteria are met.

Read more

Q: What is a spousal waiver and how does it work?

A: A spousal waiver is a legal form that a member’s spouse can complete to give up their right to survivor benefits from CAAT.

Read more

Share our customized member learning sessions

2025 may be coming to an end, but learning about pensions never has to! Our member learning sessions are a great way for members to connect with CAAT and discover the value of their pension. Led by top pension experts, these presentations explore the Plan’s features and provide retirement planning insights for members at any stage of their career. We highly encourage questions from members during these sessions – what better way to make the most of your CAAT pension?

Our 2026 sessions will be added to the Member Presentations page in the coming weeks. Please share the link with members and encourage them to sign up for a session. We look forward to reconnecting with members in the new year!

Register now

Industry outlook

Take a closer look at the latest trends, research and insights across the industry. Share with your employees and network!