Alena Thouin

At a pre-hearing conference, the Financial Services Tribunal considered applications for party status and a motion by the unrepresented applicant to convert the proceeding from an oral to a written hearing.

The Tribunal granted limited party status to two organizations but dismissed the other applications.

The Tribunal also dismissed the applicant's motion for a written hearing, finding that the presence of contested expert evidence constituted good reason to maintain an oral hearing to allow for cross-examination, despite the applicant's concerns about being unrepresented.

The 111 Pension Rights Association brought a motion to add section 69(1)(d) of the Pension Benefits Act as an alternative ground for the proposed partial wind up of the Imperial Oil Limited Retirement Plan.

The Superintendent's Notice of Proposal had only relied on section 69(1)(e).

The Financial Services Tribunal dismissed the motion, holding that it lacked jurisdiction to direct the Superintendent to order a wind up on a basis that the Superintendent had not selected or fully investigated.

The Tribunal found that it could not review the Superintendent's purely investigative functions where no quasi-judicial decision had been made.