The CAAT Pension Plan (Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology Pension Plan) is a jointly sponsored defined benefit pension plan originally established for Ontario's college sector and since expanded to serve Canadian employers across a wide range of industries. It operates two plan designs — DBprime, for the original college-sector membership, and DBplus, an innovative defined benefit vehicle open to any Canadian employer — and manages a combined fund serving more than 102,000 active and retired members across more than 500 participating employers in 17 industries. CAAT operates as a profit-for-members trust and is governed jointly by employer and member representatives.
Website: caatpension.ca
Founder: Established for Ontario's college system
Company type: Jointly sponsored pension plan (JSPP); profit-for-members trust
Regions served: Canada-wide employer membership
What does CAAT Pension Plan offer?
CAAT provides two distinct plan designs that give employers and employees access to professionally managed defined benefit pension security:
- DBprime — the original plan design for the Ontario college sector, offering a traditional defined benefit formula based on earnings and years of service
- DBplus — an innovative design available to any Canadian employer, providing lifetime defined benefit pension income calculated as the annual pension factor (raised to 9.5% effective January 1, 2025, up from 8.5%, equating to 11.7% higher benefits) multiplied by the member's total contributions; employers and employees each contribute a fixed percentage of pay with no investment or longevity risk borne by either party
- conditional inflation protection for both plan designs, with enhancements tied to the plan's funded status under a six-level funding policy adopted in 2007 and updated in 2018
- survivor benefits and disability provisions for plan members under both designs
- full plan governance, administration, and member communication services at no additional cost to employers joining through DBplus
- unified investment management of the combined fund under CAAT's joint governance structure, with the same investment strategy and risk management framework applying to both plan designs
DBplus eliminates the barriers that have historically prevented smaller and non-traditional employers from offering defined benefit pensions. Contribution rates are fixed (from 5% to 9% of pay under a participating agreement), there is no requirement for the employer to fund any potential deficit, and full responsibility for governance and investment is transferred to CAAT. The most recent actuarial valuation as at January 1, 2025 showed an actuarial surplus of C$6.141 billion.
CAAT Pension Plan in the market
CAAT has emerged as one of the most closely watched success stories in Canadian pension design over the past decade. The introduction of DBplus transformed the fund from a sector-specific plan for Ontario college employees into a vehicle capable of bringing defined benefit pension access to a far wider range of employers — including those in the not-for-profit sector, private companies without existing pensions, and organisations looking to offload the risk and complexity of single-employer defined benefit plans.
The breadth of employers now in DBplus illustrates the model's appeal. The fund's membership spans 17 industries, with recent joiners including General Motors of Canada (whose Unifor collective agreement in 2025 provided for a DBplus transition) and firms accessing the plan through Lawyers Financial. The plan's strong funded status and its joint governance structure — which gives members and employers equal say in benefit and contribution decisions — are regularly cited by industry observers as models for sustainable defined benefit design in an era when many employers have exited single-employer DB plans.
CAAT's growth directly addresses one of the most persistent gaps in the Canadian retirement landscape: the unequal access to defined benefit security between public sector workers and those employed in sectors without strong collective bargaining or large employer-sponsored plans. By aggregating employers from across industries into a single, well-funded pool, CAAT delivers the scale economics and risk diversification of a large pension fund to organisations that could never achieve those advantages on their own — a value proposition with growing resonance as DB plan closures continue across the private sector.
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