Raven Steel v. Ontario (CEO of FSRA), 2026 ONFST 8

FINANCIAL SERVICES TRIBUNAL

Citation: Raven Steel v. Ontario (CEO of FSRA), 2026 ONFST 8 FST File No.: P1096-2025 Date: 2026/06/18

IN THE MATTER OF the Pension Benefits Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. P.8 (the Act), as amended, in particular, section 108.3;

AND IN THE MATTER OF the Order Imposing Summary Administrative Penalties on Raven Steel Fabricators Inc., issued on June 2, 2025, by the Head, Pension Plan Operations and Regulatory Effectiveness, by delegated authority from the Chief Executive Officer of the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario.

AND IN THE MATTER OF a Notice of Appeal pursuant to section 108.3(4) of the Act.

B E T W E E N:

RAVEN STEEL FABRICATORS INC. APPELLANT

and

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER of the FINANCIAL SERVICES REGULATORY AUTHORITY RESPONDENT

BEFORE: Bethune Whiston, Chair of the Panel, Vice-Chair of the Financial Services Tribunal Allan Shapira, Panel Member, Member of the Financial Services Tribunal Kathryn Bush, Panel Member, Member of the Financial Services Tribunal

WRITTEN SUBMISSIONS: For the Applicant – Scott Lafond, VP of Finance for Raven Steel Fabricators Inc. For the Respondent – Michael Spagnolo, Counsel

REASONS FOR DECISION

I. INTRODUCTION and decision

1On June 2, 2025, the Respondent issued an order that the Appellant must pay summary administrative penalties in the total amount of $46,500. The basis for this order was the failure by the Appellant, contrary to the Act, to submit each of the Annual Information Return and the Financial Statements for its registered pension plan in respect of the May 1, 2023 to April 30, 2024 period, at the required date. The pension plan of the Appellant is the Pension Plan for the Employees of Raven Steel Fabricators Inc. (Registration Number 1095694), a defined contribution pension plan.

2The Appellant appealed the above Order and there was a hearing in written format.

3The issues to be determined by the Financial Services Tribunal at the hearing were as follows:

a) Did the Appellant contravene section 20 of the Act by failing to file the annual information return for the period from May 1, 2023, to April 30, 2024?

b) Did the Appellant contravene section 76(4) of Ontario Regulation 909 by failing to file financial statements for the period from May 1, 2023, to April 30, 2024?

c) If the answer to either or both of issues (a) and (b) is yes, does the Financial Services Tribunal find that the imposition of summary administrative penalties under section 108.3 of the Act, in the amount of $46,500, as prescribed in Schedule 2 of the Ontario Regulation 365/17, is reasonable in the circumstances and will promote the Appellant’s compliance with the statutory requirements?

d) Given the answer to issue (c), what order should the Respondent be directed to make?

4The panel considered all the written submissions of the parties, including requested supplementary submissions, the Agreed Statement of Facts, the Agreed Book of Documents, the Appeal Record of the Respondent, the Respondent’s Books of Authorities and the Affidavits for each of the Appellant and Respondent.

5The panel finds that the annual information return and financial statements for the period May 1, 2023 to April 30, 2024 were filed 215 days late and the Respondent properly calculated the prescribed penalties. We conclude that, in the circumstances, the Order of the Respondent is confirmed and the Appellant is required to pay summary administrative penalties in the amount of $46,500.

II. Legislation, EVIDENCE AND ANALYSIS

Requirement to File

6The Appellant, as Plan administrator, is required to file on an annual basis an Annual Information Return and Pension Fund Financial Statements under the Act and Regulation 909.

7The Annual Information Return and the Financial Statements for the Pension Plan for the Employees of Raven Steel Fabricators with respect to the May 1, 2023 to April 30, 2024 period were due on October 30, 2024, in accordance with subsections 18(1) and 76(4), respectively, of the General Regulation made under the Act. Those documents were not filed until after an order to pay the penalties was issued on June 2, 2025, and summary administrative penalties were calculated in respect of that 215-day delay in filing.

Notice and Reasonable Opportunity to Provide Submissions

8Section 108.3 of the Act indicates, among other things, that the Regulator, after providing a reasonable opportunity to provide submissions, may impose an administrative monetary penalty on a person who has failed to comply with a provision of the Act or of the Regulations.

9The Appellant has a documented history of failing to file the required filings by the due date. In 2020, the Annual Information Return and the Financial Statements were filed over 17 months late. In each of 2021, and 2022, the Annual Information Return and the Financial Statements were filed over 7 months late. In 2023, the Annual Information Return and the Financial Statements were filed over 4 months late.

10No penalties were imposed for the 2020, 2021, 2022 or 2023 late filings although the Appellant was warned that penalties may be imposed for late filings and was advised that the penalties could be very significant.

11The Respondent made efforts to bring the Appellant into compliance with the Act in respect of the late filings in 2024. In addition to the warnings with respect to prior years the Respondent contacted the Appellant more than nine separate times with respect to the 2024 filings to bring them into compliance and made it clear that summary administrative penalties would be imposed if they did not do so.

12Notifications from the Regulator started prior to the filing due date. Emails were sent on August 30, 2024, and October 16, 2025, respectively two months and two weeks prior to the due date, to the person listed in the Regulator’s Pension Services Portal as the plan administrator contact for Raven Steel Fabricators.

13The following additional notifications and attempts to reach the contact person prior to imposing a penalty (each written communication providing information respecting the obligations of a plan administrator and the possible penalties that could be applied) occurred in 2024 and 2025:

• November 4, 2024 - email with late filings first reminder
• November 20, 2024 - email with late filings second reminder
• March 12, 2025 - voice message left
• March 17, 2025 - email reminder sent
• April 7, 2025 - voice message left
• April 7, 2025 - email sent
• April 14, 2025 - follow up email
• April 25, 2025 - Notice of impending Administrative Penalties sent by email
• April 25, 2025 - Notice of impending Administrative Penalties sent by registered mail

14The Notice sent on April 25, 2025, clearly set out the elements of the calculation that would be used to determine the amount of the penalties and described the opportunity to provide written submissions. No response was provided to any of the communication attempts and no submissions were made.

15The Order imposing the administrative penalties was sent on June 2, 2025. The Annual Information Return and Financial Statements were filed seven months late, on June 4, 2025, and then a Notice of Appeal dated June 12, 2025, commencing this proceeding, was filed with the Tribunal by the Appellant.

Calculation of Administrative Penalties

16Ontario Regulation 365/17 deals with Administrative Penalties. That Regulation sets out in Schedule 2, the amounts that are prescribed for the purpose of imposing summary administrative penalties under section 108.2 of the Act, depending on what sections of the Act and Regulations are breached.

17For a late filing of an Annual Information Return, subsection 18(1) of the General Regulation is listed as item 5 of Schedule 2 of Ontario Regulation 365/17. The prescribed daily penalty for item 5 is $100 per day.

18For a late filing of Financial Statements, subsection 76(4) of the General Regulation is listed as item 8 of Schedule 2 of Ontario Regulation 365/17. The prescribed daily penalty for item 8 is $200 per day.

19Subject to the maximum amount of $25,000 for any one contravention, set by section 108.4 of the Act, the Regulator is permitted in section 6 of Regulation 365/17 to impose an administrative penalty in the amount specified in Schedule 2 for each day on which the contravention continues.

20For 215 days, the summary administrative penalties in this matter add up to $21,500 and $43,000, respectively. However, due to the maximum penalty for each contravention of $25,000, the Financial Statements administrative penalty was lowered from $43,000 to $25,000.

21Adding these together results in total summary administrative penalties of $46,500.

22The Respondent submits that it has no discretion with respect to the amount of the penalty imposed. It also made submissions regarding whether the Tribunal had discretion to vary penalty amounts relating to late filed Annual Information Returns and Financial Statements. The Applicant made no submissions on this point. We felt no need to address the discretion issue given our decision in the circumstances of this matter.

Importance of Administrative Penalties

23The Respondent submitted and the panel finds that there are many goals achieved by the ability to impose administrative penalties for non-compliance with the Act and Regulations.

24The penalties promote compliance with the Act not only by the entity fined but also by other persons subject to the same requirements under the Act. In this case, after the imposition of the penalties, despite 6 years of late filings, the 2025 Annual Information Return and Financial Statements were filed a month early.

25The Respondent also submitted that the Tribunal has previously found that administrative penalties are appropriate to maintain public confidence in the pension sector (Notta v. Ontario (Superintendent Financial Services), 2015 ONFST 2 at paragraph 23 was cited in support of this).

26The Annual Information Return and the Financial Statements allow the Respondent to monitor the ongoing health and compliance of the pension plan, as well as detect and address any potential risks early on. Data obtained from the Annual Information Return may also be used for pension trend analysis (in aggregate) if required. Additionally, under sections 29 and 30 of the Act, certain individuals, such as members, former members, retired members, spouses, and trade union representatives, are entitled to request the plan’s Annual Information Return and Financial Statements for inspection upon written request.

27The panel also notes that there are challenges with the imposition of summary administrative monetary penalties. Given the fact that the penalties are a prescribed amount per day entities administering very large pension plans are subject to the same penalties as those administering very small pension plans. In the matter at hand, we were advised that the pension plan had few active plan members and very low annual contributions. These facts suggest that some flexibility in the application of the penalty regime could be useful to avoid disproportionately high or low penalties.

Submissions from the Appellant

28The Appellant did not challenge the lateness of the Annual Information Return and Financial Statements with respect to the 2024 year or prior years. However, they did contend that there was no harm to members in the circumstances. They also contended that the penalty was extremely high relative to the size of the pension plan given that it only had (i) 5 members, (ii) $2,600 annual employer contributions, and (iii) $260,000 in total assets.

29The Appellant also submitted that the late filings resulted from an internal breakdown in communication and oversight, not willful neglect or disregard of communications from the Respondent. The Appellant noted that it took corrective actions to ensure that such failure does not occur again, including disciplining the employee who failed to complete the filings on time, moving the filing responsibility to a more senior employee and strengthening internal controls.

30These details were not provided prior to the penalty being ordered, during the permitted period for providing submissions to FSRA. Indeed, FSRA claimed that they were not provided to FSRA until the hearing occurred.

31The Appellant provided submissions indicating the challenging financial circumstances of the business, and the Respondent did confirm that the Appellant has the option of paying the penalties imposed in manageable monthly instalments.

No Cases Directly on Point

32There were no cases provided to us that decided the imposition of administrative monetary penalties in the context of the daily penalties pursuant to the Act. In addition, the decided cases, discussed in the supplementary submissions of the Respondent relating to summary administrative penalties in the Insurance Act (Ontario) and the Mortgage Brokerages, Lenders and Administrators Act (Ontario), also do not deal with daily penalties.

III. ORDER

33The Financial Services Tribunal concludes that in the circumstances, the Order of the Respondent is confirmed, and the Applicant is required to pay summary administrative penalties in the amount of $46,500.