Funding Valuation

To ensure the Plan has sufficient funds to meet its pension obligations, HOOPP conducts a funding valuation each year.

The funding valuation determines the Plan's liabilities – the amount of money needed to pay the benefits earned by members to the date of the valuation. The valuation also:

• determines the amount of money that must be contributed by HOOPP members and employers in the years following the valuation date to fund benefits earned in the future


• provides an actuarial gain/loss analysis, comparing the Plan's experience with its assumptions

A key step in the valuation is a review of the long-term economic and demographic assumptions used – as well as the methodology – to conduct the valuation. Among the long-term assumptions used in our last filed actuarial valuation are:

• 2.25% annual inflation rate
• annual interest rate of 6.25%
• annual salary increases in the healthcare field of 4.75%

So once the assumptions and methodology have been reviewed – and where necessary adjusted – the Plan's liabilities are determined. An actuarial balance sheet is then used to compare the Plan's liabilities to its assets to determine if sufficient funds have been set aside to date. HOOPP reviews its economic forecasts annually and conducts sensitivity analyses to determine whether these assumptions are still appropriate.

HOOPP is required to file a valuation with the Financial Services Commission of Ontario at least every three years.