The purpose of this amendment is.... Just by way of background, in the initial defined benefit or defined contribution context, it's the employer who is the sponsor of these plans. In the PRPP context, we're taking that responsibility away from the employer and putting it on the administrator. This is a key element in terms of what we hope to find is the attractiveness of these plans for employers: that they have a lot less liability and have less administrative cost to deliver them. That is our expectation: that these will be attractive to small businesses.
Without such a provision, making them responsible for the acts of the administrator—things such as investment returns, their fiduciary obligation about how they invest their funds—would create a real risk that employers.... It's not actually their role and responsibility to provide those services, yet they would ultimately be responsible.
This is a bit of a safe harbour for them, in terms of those responsibilities that are directly for the administrator. There are many responsibilities on the employer, as enumerated in this act, which still stand, such as the one we were explaining earlier vis-à-vis inducement. So this is not a blanket exemption from any responsibility; they have clear responsibilities, which are elaborated.