Retrospective Plan

This plan is designed for very large companies whose annual contribution is generally greater than approximately $400,000.
There are 3 ways to become subject to the retrospective plan:

Basic test:
Your company is automatically subject to the plan if the parameters (based on the 2nd year prior to the year in question) allow you to cross the threshold for being subject. The CNESST performs this calculation annually and generally informs you 5 months in advance if you are subject to the retrospective plan for the coming year.

Entry test:
If this basic threshold is not reached, your company can still be subject to the retrospective plan if it meets 2 conditions. First, it must reach the threshold of liability based on the parameters of the year in question and must also file an application with the CNESST before December 15 of the year in question.

Regrouping under the retrospective plan :
Even if companies do not individually meet the basic liability threshold, they may group together to meet it if they are controlled by the same parent company. To do so, an application must be sent to the CNESST before September 30 and must be renewed annually if your company now wants to regroup.

Considering the important financial consequences that the decision on the choice of the limit generates annually, it cannot be left to chance and must necessarily be based on a thoughtful analysis where all the criteria having an impact on the choice of limit have been considered.
To do so, 4 fundamental elements should be considered:
- Your experience in previous years
- Your risk tolerance
- The management and control of the cost of claims
- Prevention of occupational injuries

In this way, you maximize the probability of having made a good choice of limit and avoiding unpleasant surprises!

In addition to increases in your payroll and in the unit rate of your sector of activity, which may result in an increase in your CNESST contribution, an increase in the cost of your occupational injuries from previous years will result in an increase in your personalized rate and therefore in your contribution to the CNESST.

Generally, these are costs for injuries that occurred 3 years ago. In fact, the CNESST uses the last 4 years of experience (the year preceding the calculation year is not considered). Among these 4 years, the three oldest have the most weight in the calculation of your rate (years of severity). For example, an increase in your personalized rate in 2022 would likely be due to injuries in 2019 that begin to have a significant impact in 2022.
For companies paying into the retrospective plan, the personalized rate is particularly important since an increase will cause an increase in the cost of insurance and the 150% maximum for the next few years. These parameters are very important when choosing an insurance limit.

Yes, the limit election is exclusive and mandatory for companies subject to the retrospective rating system. Each year, employers or managers must elect the limit of assessment per occupational injury that they are willing to assume. The limit election requires you to indicate to the CNESST the maximum amount you are prepared to bear for the compensation of each occupational injury that may occur in your organization.

Corporate transactions can affect the rate plan to which you are subject and several situations can arise. For example, is the acquiring company already in a preventive mutual plan or a retrospective plan? Are these plans performing well? Will the merger of OHS experiences increase your personalized rate?

Furthermore, since a corporate merger generally increases the total payroll, this could result in the threshold for retrospective coverage being reached.

In short, any corporate transaction must be analyzed in detail to determine if your rate plan is affected and, more importantly, how.