18. employee future benefits
The Company has a number of defined benefit and defined contribution plans providing pension, other retirement and post-employment benefits to most of its employees. Other benefit plans include TELUS Québec Inc. healthcare costs. The benefit plan(s) in which an employee is a participant reflects the general development of the Company.
Pension Plan for Management and Professional Employees of TELUS Corporation: This defined benefit pension plan, which ceased accepting new participants on January 1, 2006, and which comprises approximately one-quarter of the Company’s total accrued benefit obligation, provides a non-contributory base level of pension benefits. Additionally, on a contributory basis, employees can annually choose increased and/or enhanced levels of pension benefits over the base level of pension benefits. At an enhanced level of pension benefits, the defined benefit pension plan has indexation of 100% of a specified cost-of-living index, to a maximum of 2%. Pensionable remuneration is determined by the average of the best five consecutive years.TELUS Corporation Pension Plan: Management and professional employees in Alberta who joined the Company prior to January 1, 2001, and certain unionized employees are covered by this contributory defined benefit pension plan, which comprises slightly more than one-half of the Company’s total accrued benefit obligation. Indexation is up to 70% of a specified cost-of-living index and pensionable remuneration is determined by the average of the best five years in the last ten years preceding retirement.
TELUS Corporation Pension Plan for Employees of TELUS Communications (Québec) Inc. (formerly the TELUS Communications Quebec Pension Plan): This contributory defined benefit, which comprises approximately one-tenth of the Company’s total accrued benefit obligation, has no indexation and pensionable remuneration is determined by the average of the best four years.
TELUS Edmonton Pension Plan: This contributory defined benefit pension plan ceased accepting new participants on January 1, 1998. Indexation is 60% of a specified cost-of-living index and pensionable remuneration is determined by the annualized average of the best sixty consecutive months in the last ten years preceding retirement.
Other defined benefit pension plans: In addition to the foregoing plans, the Company has non-registered, non-contributory supplementary defined benefit pension plans which have the effect of maintaining the earned pension benefit once the allowable maximums in the registered plans are attained.
The Company has three contributory, non-indexed pension plans arising from a pre-merger acquisition which comprise less than 1% of the Company’s total accrued benefit obligation; these plans ceased accepting new participants in September 1989.
Other defined benefit plans: Other defined benefit plans, which are all non-contributory, are comprised of a disability income plan, a healthcare plan for retired employees and a life insurance plan. The healthcare plan for retired employees and the life insurance plans ceased accepting new participants effective January 1, 1997. In connection with the collective agreement signed in the fourth quarter of 2005, as further discussed in Note 16(b), the disability income plan will be provided by an external supplier effective January 1, 2006. The existing disability income plan will continue to provide payments to previously approved claimants and qualified eligible employees.
Telecommunication Workers Pension Plan: Certain employees in British Columbia are covered by a union pension plan. Contributions are determined in accordance with provisions of negotiated labour contracts and are generally based on employee gross earnings.
British Columbia Public Service Pension Plan: Certain employees in British Columbia are covered by a public service pension plan. Contributions are determined in accordance with provisions of labour contracts negotiated by the Province of British Columbia and are generally based on employee gross earnings.
Defined contribution pension plans: The Company offers two defined contribution pension plans. The first of the Company’s defined contribution pension plans requires a 3% base level of Company contributions. Additionally, employees can annually choose to contribute to the plan, at a rate of between 3% and 6% of their pensionable earnings, and the Company will match the contributions of the employees to a maximum of 50%, depending upon the amount of the employee contribution and the years of service of the employee. In the second of the Company’s defined contribution pension plans, employees can choose to contribute to the plan, at a rate of between 2% and 5% of their pensionable earnings, and the Company will match the contributions of the employees to a maximum of 80%. Similarly, for certain employees, the Company offers a registered retirement savings plan-based program in which the Company matches employee contributions, dollar for dollar, to an annual maximum of $2,500 per employee.
(a) Defined benefit plans
Information concerning the Company’s defined benefit plans, in aggregate, is as follows:
In 2001, the Company sold substantially all of the TELUS Advertising Services directory business and the TELUS Québec directory business. As a result of this transaction, the pension obligation relating to the former TELUS Advertising Services employees, contained within the TELUS Corporation Pension Plan, will be transferred upon receipt of the requisite regulatory approvals; such approvals have not been received as at December 31, 2005. The pension obligation of $17.2 million has been actuarially determined as at July 31, 2001. In accordance with the sale agreement, TELUS Corporation Pension Plan assets of $17.2 million, plus interest accrued to December 31, 2005, of $6.0 million (2004 – $4.5 million) will be transferred along with the pension obligation. Interest will continue to accrue, at 7% per annum, up to the date that the assets are transferred. The transfer will be accounted for as a settlement in the period in which the transfer occurs.
The accrued benefit asset (liability), net of valuation allowance, is reflected in the Consolidated Balance Sheets as follows:
The measurement date used to determine the plan assets and accrued benefit obligation was December 31.
The Company’s net defined benefit plan costs were as follows:
(b) Benefit payments
Estimated future benefit payments from the Company’s defined benefit plans are as follows:
(c) Disaggregation of defined benefit pension plan funding status
Accrued benefit obligations are the actuarial present values of benefits attributed to employee services rendered to a particular date. The Company’s disaggregation of defined benefit pension plans surplus and deficits at year-end are as follows:
At December 31, 2005 and 2004, undrawn Letters of Credit, further discussed in Note 14(c), secured certain of the unfunded defined benefit pension plans.
(d) Disaggregation of other defined benefit plan funding status
Accrued benefit obligations are the actuarial present values of benefits attributed to employee services rendered to a particular date. The Company’s disaggregation of other defined benefit plans surplus and deficits at year-end are as follows:
(e) Accumulated pension benefit obligations
Accumulated benefit obligations differ from accrued benefit obligations in that accumulated benefit obligations do not include assumptions about future compensation levels. The Company’s disaggregation of defined pension benefit plans accumulated benefit obligations and plan assets at year-end are as follows:
(f) Plan investment strategies and policies
The Company’s primary goal for the defined benefit plans is to ensure the security of the retirement income and other benefits of the plan members and their beneficiaries. A secondary goal of the Company is to maximize the long-term rate of return of the defined benefit plans’ assets within a level of risk acceptable to the Company.
Risk management: The Company considers absolute risk (the risk of contribution increases, inadequate plan surplus and unfunded obligations) to be more important than relative return risk. Accordingly, the defined benefit plans’ designs, the nature and maturity of defined benefit obligations and characteristics of the plans’ memberships significantly influence investment strategies and policies. The Company manages risk through specifying allowable and prohibited investment types, setting diversification strategies and determining target asset allocations.
Allowable and prohibited investment types: Allowable and prohibited investment types, along with associated guidelines and limits, are set out in each fund’s Pension Benefits Standards Act required Statement of Investment Policies and Procedures (SIP&P), which is reviewed and approved annually by the designated governing fiduciary. The SIP&P guidelines and limits are further governed by the Pension Benefits Standards Regulations’ permitted investments and lending limits. As well as conventional investments, each fund’s SIP&P may provide for the use of derivative products to facilitate investment operations and to manage risk provided that no short position is taken, no use of leverage is made and there is no violation of guidelines and limits established in the SIP&P. Internally managed funds are prohibited from increasing grandfathered investments in securities of the Company; grandfathered investments were made prior to the merger of BC TELECOM Inc. and TELUS Corporation, the Company’s predecessors. Externally managed funds are permitted to invest in securities of the Company, provided that the investments are consistent with the funds’ mandate and are in compliance with the relevant SIP&P.
Diversification: The Company’s strategy for equity security investments is to be broadly diversified across individual securities, industry sectors and geographical regions. A meaningful portion (15–25% of total plans’ assets) of the investment in equity securities is allocated to foreign equity securities with the intent of further increasing the diversification of the plans’ assets. Debt securities may include a meaningful allocation to mortgages with the objective of enhancing cash flow and providing greater scope for the management of the bond component of the plans’ assets. Debt securities also may include real return bonds to provide inflation protection, consistent with the indexed nature of some defined benefit obligations. Real estate investments are used to provide diversification of plans’ assets, potential long-term inflation hedging and comparatively stable investment income.
Relationship between plan assets and benefit obligations: With the objective of lowering its long-term costs of defined benefit plans, the Company purposely mismatches plan assets and benefit obligations. This mismatching is implemented by including equity investments in the long-term asset mix as well as fixed income securities and mortgages with durations that differ from the benefit obligations. Compensation for liquidity issues that may have otherwise arisen from mismatching of plan assets and benefit obligations comes from broadly diversified investment holdings (including cash and short-term investment holdings) and cash flows from dividends, interest and rents from diversified investment holdings.
Asset allocations: Information concerning the Company’s defined benefit plans’ target asset allocation and actual asset allocation is as follows:
At December 31, 2005, shares of TELUS Corporation accounted for less than 1% of the assets held in the pension and other benefit trusts administered by the Company.
(g) Employer contributions
The best estimates of fiscal 2006 employer contributions to the Company’s defined benefit plans are approximately $114 million and $1 million for defined benefit pension plans and other defined benefit plans, respectively. These estimates are based upon the mid-year 2005 annual funding reports that were prepared by actuaries using December 31, 2004, actuarial valuations. The funding reports are based on the pension plans’ fiscal years, which are calendar years. The next annual funding valuations are expected to be prepared mid-year 2006.
(h) Assumptions
Management is required to make significant estimates about certain actuarial and economic assumptions to be used in determining defined benefit pension costs, accrued benefit obligations and pension plan assets. These significant estimates are of a long-term nature, which is consistent with the nature of employee future benefits. The significant weighted average actuarial assumptions arising from these estimates and adopted in measuring the Company’s accrued benefit obligations are as follows:
The Company’s health benefit costs for the defined benefit plan for retired employees were estimated to increase at an annual rate of 9.0% (2004 – 9.5%), decreasing to an annual growth rate of 5% (2004 – 5%) over an eight-year period.
(i) Defined contribution plans
The Company’s total defined contribution pension plan costs recognized were as follows:
