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 Retraite Québec with:
- your contact information
- a valid email address (personal email address).
You will then receive an email from Retraite Québec asking you to sign up for the SPP Portal.
As an administrator's representative, you are responsible for signing up your collaborators and pension committee members for the SPP Portal to be granted access. Once you have entered their contact information and email address in the SPP Portal, an email from Retraite Québec will be sent to them, asking them to sign up for the SPP Portal.
To find out how to sign up pension committee members for the SPP Portal and update their contact information, consult the Pension committee subsection.
To find out how to sign up collaborators for the SPP Portal and update their contact information, consult the Collaborators section.
If you do not have access to the SPP Portal for a plan for which you are the plan administrator's representative, 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
Collaborators
Only a natural person having a personal email address can be added as a collaborator.
You are responsible for:
- entering in this section the information concerning the persons who must access the SPP Portal and assigning them a role according to the tasks they must carry out
- updating the information concerning them and their contact information
- removing from the list of collaborators the information concerning the persons who can no longer have access to the SPP Portal.
When you click Save, the information you entered in that section appears in the table of collaborators. 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.
If a collaborator changes his or her email address, you must delete the collaborator's file and complete a new file in his or her name.
Example
A collaborator's access depends on the role he or she was assigned by you. The possible roles are:
- Person authorized to complete the AIR
- Person authorized to send documents
- Auditor.
Person authorized to complete the AIR
A person authorized to complete the AIR has access to the following sections:
- Information on the pension plan
- Annual information return
- Payments.
The person can consult and change information in those sections, but cannot submit the AIR.
You can add several persons authorized to complete the AIR for the same plan.
Person authorized to send documents
A person authorized to send documents only has access to the Submitting documents section. That person can add and consult documents that he or she has sent himself or herself, but cannot consult documents sent by other people.
You can add several persons authorized to send documents for the same plan.
Auditor
An auditor only has access to the following subsections of the AIR:
- Consult, verify and submit the AIR to consult the AIR to answer the questions addressed to him or her
- Attach or consult a document to attach the reports to the AIR.
The auditor cannot make changes to the AIR or submit the return to Retraite Québec.
There can be only one auditor per plan.
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
- submit the
AIR to Retraite Québec
- 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 you 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 you would like to make a change to a return that has already been submitted, you 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
- send an
AIR to the auditor so that he or she can carry out a verification and answer the questions addressed to him or her (for plans' financial reports subject to an audit)
- send an
AIR to Retraite Québec.
Status of the AIR
This information allows you to find out what stage the production process of the
AIR has reached.
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 can be submitted to Retraite Québec.
The
AIR is submitted only once the administrator 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 the
AIR has been submitted, a PDF document cannot be obtained in another language.
Verifying the
AIR
By verifying the return, you ensure that 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 you can submit the
AIR, you must have verified the information in the
AIR and corrected all the errors indicated
in red.
If you return to a section of the
SPP Portal to consult or change information,
you must verify the return again when you come back to the Consult, verify and submit subsection.
Submitting the
AIR to the auditor
If the plan's financial report is subject to an audit, you must use the
Submit to the auditor button so that the auditor can complete lines 387 through 389. The questions are posted for consultation purposes only.
You must have first registered the information concerning the auditor in the list of collaborators.
Given that the auditor is not authorized to make changes to the
AIR, once the return has been sent to the auditor, the Financial situation of the plan section can only be changed if the auditor so requests. You are the person required to make the requested changes.
Submitting the
AIR to Retraite Québec
Only the plan administrator's representative can submit the
AIR to Retraite Québec.
If the plan's financial report is subject to an audit, the auditor must first finish verifying the report before the
AIR can be submitted to Retraite Québec.
If the plan's financial report is not subject to an audit, you can submit your
AIR to Retraite Québec once it has been verified and all errors have been corrected.
Before submitting the
AIR, you must ensure that:
- the schedule for the
CRA has been completed (if you would like to use the
SPP Portal online service to send the data included in the schedule to the CRA)
- all the validation errors indicated
in red have been corrected (if problems indicated by warning messages have not been corrected at the verification step, you must confirm that you want to submit the return despite the inconsistencies)
- the information in the 4 subsections under the Information on the pension plan section are up to date.
When you submit the
AIR, you must confirm that the plan administrator has reviewed the information in the
AIR and can attest to the accuracy of the information contained therein.
The confirmation has the same effect as a signature.
Once the
AIR has been submitted, a confirmation that it has been submitted will appear onscreen. You can find the following information:
- the reference number that you must use to pay the required fees
- the amount of fees to be paid
- the date and time on which the
AIR was submitted to Retraite Québec.
You can print the confirmation for your records.
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.
Electronic messaging
Each plan has an access to an electronic messaging service grouping all messages exchanged between Retraite Québec and individuals who have access to the messaging service. Therefore, the messaging service is linked to the plan and not to your role, which means that all individuals with access to the service can see the messages that were exchanged.
In this section, you can:
- send information in a message
- send documents and applications in a message
- receive messages
- consult messages.
The person representing the plan administrator is the main person with whom Retraite Québec communicates. Therefore, a notification will be sent to that person by email when Retraite Québec
- sends a new message
- replies to a message.
A notification will also be sent to the person who sent the first message of the exchange, if it is not the administrator's representative.
Never send confidential information in a message.
Any information that allows an individual to be identified is considered to be confidential, for example, an individual's Social Insurance Number, date of birth, home address or salary. That type of information must be sent in a document attached to a message.
For more information on the way to send documents containing confidential information, consult the New message section of this guide.
Inbox
From the inbox, you can consult messages that Retraite Québec has sent.
With a few exceptions, Retraite Québec no longer mails letters; they are now filed in the SPP Portal in PDF format in the Documents section and not in the Electronic messaging section.
Example
- The number of unread messages is entered on the right of the inbox in the left menu.
- The search field allows you to search by subject or content of messages.
- Sorting and filters are available in every column.
- A closed black enveloppe indicates that the message has not yet been consulted.
Drafts
You can save a message so that you can send it at a later time. In that case, your message will be stored in the Drafts subsection. You can only consult drafts that you will have saved yourself.
Example
If you delete a draft, you will not be able to restore it; it will be deleted permanently.
Sent items
You can consult all the messages sent to Retraite Québec from this box, regardless of who sent them.
New message
The electronic messaging service allows you to send information, documents and applications to Retraite Québec. Please note that the AIR cannot be sent through the electronic messaging service. It must be sent through the Consult, verify and submit an AIR subsection under the Annual information return section.
To write a new message:
- click the New message button
- choose a topic from the drop-down list
- complete the displayed fields
- write your message
- if necessary, add a document or documents
- choose a type of document (related to the subject of your message)
- select Yes or No as to whether the document contains confidential information
- select the document(s) to upload
- Repeat steps a to c for each document to be added.
Document containing confidential information
Any information that allows a person to be identified is considered to be confidential. For example, if you add a document that contains an individual's Social Insurance Number, date of birth, home address or salary, you must select Yes on the right of the confidential information indicator. Therefore, only the plan administrator's representative and Retraite Québec will be able to consult the document.
In the case of certain types of documents likely to contain confidential information, Yes has already been selected by default on the right of the confidential information indicator. This is the case, among other things, for the register of salaries, trustee's statement and statement of benefits. Please note that even if Yes has been selected by default for a particular document, you can always select No if it does not contain any confidential information.
Only documents in one of the following formats can be sent through the electronic messaging service: PDF, XLSX (25 MB maximum per document).
You can send several documents related to the same subject in one message. However, each document must be in a separate PDF file.
You then have two options, either you:
- Save your message in Drafts
- Send the message to Retraite Québec. Once the message has been sent, it is filed in the sent items box. The attached documents are automatically listed in the Documents section.
Example
Documents
In this section, you can consult all documents exchanged via the SPP Portal, including letters sent by Retraite Québec. With a few exceptions, Retraite Québec no longer mails letters.
You can also consult the documents added by the persons authorized to send documents.
However, if Yes is selected on the right of the confidential information indicator, pension committee members cannot consult documents containing confidential information. They will see the name of the document displayed in the list, but will not be able to open it.
To send documents to Retraite Québec, you must use the electronic messaging service.
You can filter results by subject, date, document type, etc. You can also combine search topics to narrow down your results.
When Retraite Québec adds documents that were sent otherwise than via the SPP Portal, for example by mail, the date indicated in the Added on field corresponds to the date on which Retraite Québec received the document and not to the date on which Retraite Québec added it to the SPP Portal.
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