How to access the SPP Portal
Before you start...
SPP Portal access rights vary depending on each person's role: each person is only granted access to sections required to complete his or her duties.
The same person can work on several pension plans or standard contracts and have different roles. The person is granted access rights accordingly.
Only the following persons can grant access to the SPP Portal to collaborators who need it to carry out their tasks related to a pension plan or a standard contract, as the case may be:
- SPP, SIPP and VRSP administrator's representatives
- contact persons for a LIRA or LIF.
First time accessing the SPP Portal
To be granted access to the SPP Portal, you must provide the plan administrator's representative with your email address (personal email address) so that your name can be added to the list of collaborators to the plan.
Once the information about you has been entered by the administrator's representative in the SPP Portal, an email from Retraite Québec will be sent, asking you to sign up for the SPP Portal.
If you do not have access to the SPP Portal for a plan for which you are a person authorized to complete an AIR, please contact the plan administrator's representative concerned. If that person confirms that the information about you has been entered in the Collaborators section, please contact Retraite Québec:
Creating a user account
To create an account, click the Sign up now link.
Example 
Then, enter your email address (personal email address) and click Send verification code.
Example
You will receive an email at the address you entered, which contains the verification code you need to complete your authentication.
Enter the verification code in the authentication window, then click Verify code.
The verification code is valid for approximately 5 minutes.
You cannot find the email?
Check your spam folder. It should be there. Drag it to your inbox: that way, the next time you receive emails from that source, they will be sent directly to your inbox.
Example
Once the code has been verified, you must enter and confirm a password and click Create.
The password must be between 12 and 64 characters and include at least 2 of the following characters:
- a lowercase letter
- a capital letter
- a number
- a symbol.
You are responsible for protecting the confidential information that allows you to log in to the SPP Portal. That information should not be disclosed to other persons of your organization or to external providers.
Logging in
When you click Go to the service, the login window will appear.
Enter your email address and your password, then click Sign in.
Example 
The window below will appear. Click Send verification code.
You will receive an email at the address you entered, which contains the verification code you need to complete your authentication.
The verification code is valid for a approximately 5 minutes.
You cannot find the email?
Check your spam folder. It should be there. Drag it to your inbox: that way, the next time you receive emails from that source, they will be sent directly to your inbox.
You must enter the verification code in the authentication window, then click Verify code.
Once the code has been verified, you must click Continue to access the SPP Portal.
If you have a role in several plans or standard contracts, you must first choose the one to which you want to log in.
If you have several roles for the same plan or standard contract, be sure to select the appropriate one, because SPP Portal access rights differ depending on the role.
Homepage
The homepage:
- allows you, if applicable, to select another plan, standard contract or role without having to sign out
- displays the icons that correspond to the sections to which you have access, depending on your role.
The menu displayed on the homepage can also be found on the top left of every page of the SPP Portal, which allows you to access other sections without having to return to the homepage.
SPP Portal sections
Information on the pension plan
This section allows you to consult and update the information that Retraite Québec has concerning:
- the pension plan
- the administrator's representative
- the pension committee, if applicable
- the employer or employers party to the plan.
Pension plan
The subsection shows some general information that concerns the pension plan.
Only the Plan name change and Type of plan administrator fields can be changed. To make changes to other fields, you must contact Retraite Québec:
- through the
SPP Portal's messaging service
-
by email.
-
by mail
Pension plan administrator's representative
This subsection provides the contact information of the plan administrator's representative.
Only one person may represent the plan administrator.
You can change the telephone number or this person's title yourself via the SPP Portal.
For any other change, for example, his or her name or contact information (mailing or email address), you must inform Retraite Québec in writing:
- through the
SPP Portal's messaging service
- by email.
- by mail
Pension committee
This subsection is available only if the type of plan administrator is a pension committee.
You are responsible for:
- entering the information concerning the pension committee members
- updating the information concerning them and their contact information
- removing from the list of committee members the information concerning the persons who are no longer in office and who can no longer have access to the
SPP Portal.
In the interest of protecting the personal information of pension committee members, their contact information is not visible in the printed or saved version of the AIR.
When you click
Save, the information you entered in that section appears in the table of pension committee members. If you entered a new person in that section, he or she will receive an email asking him or her to sign up for the
SPP Portal.
Employers
This subsection provides information of the employer or employers party to the plan.
You are responsible for:
- entering and updating the information concerning the employers
- removing from the list the employers that are no longer party to the plan.
If changes have been made to the list of employers (add, remove or change name), the status indicated on the right of the names of employers for which changes have been made will remain pending until Retraite Québec has received and registered an application for registration of amendments.
Therefore, if changes have not yet been registered, the total number of employers entered under the table may differ from the number indicated in the Total number of employers under the provisions of the plan field.
Four statuses are possible:
- Active (employer registered in accordance with the plan text)
- Awaiting changes
- Awaiting removal
- Awaiting addition.
If you made a change related to an employer by mistake, you can cancel it provided the status indicated is pending.
Example
Annual information return
In this section, you can:
- complete the
AIR for a given year
- complete the schedule for the Canada Revenue Agency
- add documents to the AIR
- verify the information in the AIR
- consult the PDF versions of AIRs submitted to Retraite Québec.
Completing the
AIR
Only AIRs whose fiscal year ended on 31 December 2018 or on a later date are available in the
SPP Portal. To complete or consult an
AIR, you must first select the fiscal year in question.
Pension committee members and auditors cannot consult the information in an
AIR until the person representing the administrator or a person authorized to complete the
AIR has begun entering data.
The
AIR is presented in several subsections. In order to submit it to Retraite Québec, all subsections must be completed. Context-sensitive help boxes are available to help you correctly complete most lines in the
AIR. To consult the information they contain, click the icon 
on the right of the corresponding line number.
Note that information for the previous year is listed in the right column. You can reduce the size of the column if necessary.
Once an
AIR has been submitted to Retraite Québec,
you can no longer make any changes to it. If changes need to be made to a return that has already been submitted, the administrator's representative must contact Retraite Québec:
- through the
SPP Portal's messaging service
- by email.
- by mail
Determining the requirement of a financial audit (subsection 3.3)
You must complete this subsection
only if the plan meets these two criteria:
- It has less than 50 members and beneficiaries
- Its net assets are less than $1 million.
Otherwise, the lines of that subsection will not be accessible and the auditor will have to answer the questions addressed to him or her in the Consult, verify and submit the
AIR subsection. The auditor's report on the audited financial statements for the plan and the report on supplementary matters arising from an audit must be enclosed with the AIR.
If the plan meets the two criteria listed above, you must answer the question on line 381:
- If you answered Yes, the date of the annual meeting during which the members and beneficiaries were informed of the intention not to have the financial report audited
must be entered on line 381.0. Answers to the questions of lines 387 and 389 must also be provided.
- If you answered No, the questions on lines 387 and 389 will be visible
but you will not be able to answer them. A message will inform you that the auditor must answer the questions addressed to him or her in the Consult, verify and submit the
AIR subsection. The auditor's report on the audited financial statements for the plan and the report on supplementary matters arising from an audit must be enclosed with the AIR.
The Schedule of Required Information for the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA)
As long as the
AIR has not been submitted to Retraite Québec, you can complete the schedule for the
CRA through the
SPP Portal. When the
AIR is submited to Retraite Québec, the schedule is automaticallly forwarded to the
CRA. A PDF version of the schedule is also available in the Attach or consult a document subsection of the AIR.
Once the
AIR has been submitted to Retraite Québec, the schedule cannot be completed for the
CRA through the
SPP Portal. In such a case, you must use the
form available on the
CRA's website 
and
send it directly to the CRA.
Attach or consult a document
This subsection allows you to consult or add documents to the
AIR for a given year, including:
- the financial report and statements
- the auditor's report on the audited financial statements for the plan
- the report on supplementary matters arising from an audit
- any other document related to the
AIR (additional information).
The documents must be in PDF or XLSX format (each document must be in a separate file and cannot exceed 25 MB).
If the
AIR has not yet been submitted to Retraite Québec, the documents saved in the Attach or consult a document subsection will automatically be sent with the
AIR. As long as the
AIR and attached documents have not been submitted to Retraite Québec, a document can be deleted.
After the
AIR has been submitted, you can still add documents in that subsection and send them to Retraite Québec. However, to delete a document that has already been submitted, you must contact Retraite Québec:
Consult, verify and submit the AIR
This subsection allows you to:
- be informed of the status of an AIR
- save an
AIR in PDF format
- consult and verify all the information in an AIR.
Only the plan administrator's representative can submit the
AIR to the auditor or Retraite Québec.
Status of the AIR
This information allows you to find out what stage the production process of the
AIR has reached.
Example
The following statuses are possible:
- Being entered: The administrator's representative or the person authorized to complete the
AIR has begun entering data.
- Being audited: The auditor is verifying the return.
- Audited: The auditor has finished verifying the return.
The
AIR is submitted only once the administrator's representative has clicked the Submit to Retraite Québec button and has received confirmation that it has been submitted.
An
AIR whose status is Audited is not submitted to Retraite Québec: it is considered as not filed, and additional fees can apply if the time period prescribed has not been complied with.
Saving the document in PDF format
You can save and print a draft version of the
AIR in PDF format at any time, even if the return has not been finished.
-
To save the PDF in French, you must sign in to the French
SPP Portal, which provides you with a French interface.
-
To save the PDF in English, you must sign in to the English
SPP Portal, which provides you with an English interface.
As long as the
AIR has not been submitted to Retraite Québec, you can save the PDF document in French or English, based on the language you choose when you sign in to the
SPP Portal.
However, the language used when the
AIR is submitted to Retraite Québec will determine the language in which the PDF document will be generated definitely. Once you have submitted the
AIR, you can no longer obtain a PDF document in another language.
Verifying the
AIR
By verifying the return, you ensure it does not contain any errors or inconsistencies. Two types of error messages may appear at the top of the page:
- errors to be corrected (in red)
- warning messages (in yellow).
Before the
AIR is submitted, all errors indicated
in red must have been corrected.
If you return to a section of the
SPP Portal to consult information,
you must verify the return again when you come back to the Consult, verify and submit the
AIR subsection.
Questions for the auditor only
If the plan's financial report is subject to an audit, the auditor must complete lines 387 through 389 and the answers will be posted for consultation purposes only.
See submitted AIRs
This subsection allows you to consult all the AIRs that have been submitted through the
SPP Portal to Retraite Québec (initial or corrected versions, as applicable). The language used in each PDF document corresponds to the language used when the
AIR was submitted.
Payments
This section refers to the
Payment of fees page on Retraite Québec's website, which explains the terms of payment of fees related to a supplemental pension plan, a VRSP, a LIRA or a LIF.
If you would like to pay the fees online, you must indicate the reference number assigned by Retraite Québec. This number is usually indicated on the request for payment letter. If you do not have it, please contact Retraite Québec:
Meaning of acronyms
- LIRA: Locked-in retirement account
- LIF: Life income fund
- AIR: Annual information return
- SPP: Supplemental pension plan
- SIPP: Simplified pension plan
- VRSP: Voluntary retirement savings plan