Chair
Mr. John Solursh was appointed Chair of the Board and the Financial Services Tribunal on August 9, 2007, having served as Vice Chair since February 25, 2005. Mr. Solursh is a partner with Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP. He is a former chair of the firm’s Executive Committee, a former Managing Partner of the firm, and is partner-in-charge of the firm’s Pension and Employee Benefits Group. He holds an LL.B from the University of Toronto.
Mr. Solursh is a former co-chair of the International Bar Association’s sub-committee on Employee Benefits & Pensions, a Past Chair of the Executive of the Canadian Bar Association (Ontario) Pension and Benefits Section, a former member of the Legal Advisory Committee to the Pension Commission of Ontario, and a former member of the Executive of the International Pension and Employee Benefits Lawyers Association. Mr. Solursh serves as the Chair of the Actuarial Standards Oversight Council which was established in January 2007 by the Canadian Institute of Actuaries to provide independent oversight in the public interestof the Actuarial Standards Board and it's activities in developing and adopting Canadianactuarial standards of practice. Mr. Solursh was appointed a member to the Financial Services Tribunal on August 11, 2004.
Vice-Chair
Ms. Anne Corbett was appointed Vice-Chair of the Board and the Financial Services Tribunal on August 11, 2004. Ms. Corbett is a partner with Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, practising as a corporate commercial lawyer with special emphasis on pension law and hospital law. Ms. Corbett holds a B.A. from the University of Windsor and an LL.B. from the University of Toronto. Ms. Corbett was appointed a member to the Financial Services Tribunal on June 20, 2001.
Ms. Florence A. Holden was appointed Vice-Chair (acting) of the Board and the Financial Services Tribunal on October 2, 2007. Ms. Holden is a Principal in the human resources consulting firm of Towers Perrin Inc. She specializes in providing advice on the design, implementation and documentation of retirement plans and funds including advice on governance, administration and compliance matters. Ms. Holden holds a Bachelor of Business Administration (Honours) from York University and an LL.B. from Osgoode Hall Law School.
Ms. Holden was previously the Chair of the Executive of the Ontario Bar Association’s Pension and Benefits Section and is a frequent speaker within the pension industry. Ms. Holden was appointed a member to the Financial Services Tribunal on August 11, 2004.
Members
Mr. Shiraz Bharmal was appointed a member to the Financial Services Tribunal on September 9, 2002, and is an actuary by profession. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries and of the Institute of Actuaries in England. He is also an Associate of the Society of Actuaries in the U.S. and a Fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute in England.
He retired from Towers Perrin at the end of 1998 where he was Managing Principal and head of the firm's Employee Benefits Services consulting practice in Canada. He has extensive experience, spanning over three decades, in all aspects of pension and employee benefits plan design, funding and administration.
He has served, and continues to serve, in various professional, charitable and public bodies. From 1994 to 1998, Mr. Bharmal was a member of the Pension Commission of Ontario. He is currently a member of the Toronto Local Mediation Committee under the Ontario Mandatory Mediation Program and also serves on the Aga Khan Conciliation and Arbitration Board, which provides voluntary alternate dispute resolution services to the members of the Ismaili Muslim community.
Professor Denis Boivin was appointed a member of the Financial Services Tribunal on June 7, 2006, having served as a special purpose member of the Tribunal from December 1, 2004. Professor Boivin is on the staff of the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa. A graduate of that University (B.Soc.Sc., LL.B.) and of Yale University (LL.M.) and a Fulbright Scholar, he teaches Insurance Law, Remedies and Torts, and has written several articles and three books on these subjects, in French and English. Professor Boivin is the recipient of many awards for teaching and scholarship, including the 1999 Canadian Association of Law Teachers Award for Scholarly Writing.
Ms. Heather Gavin was appointed a member to the Financial Services Tribunal on January 13, 1999. She is currently the Chief Administrative Officer and Plan Manager for the OPSEU Pension Trust (OPTrust). Prior to joining the OPTrust Ms Gavin was a senior Administrator for the Ontario Public Service Employees’ Union (OPSEU) for over 18 years. Ms. Gavin served as Chair of the Hospitals of Ontario Pension Plan from 1993 - 1994 and has held the position of Trustee of the OPSEU Pension Trust for over 10 years. Other positions held are: Ontario Federation of Labour Pension Committee and National Union of Public and General Employees Pension Committee. Ms. Gavin has served on the Ontario Regional Council of the Canadian Pensions and Benefit Conference and on the Hamilton/Wentworth, Burlington United Way.
Mr. Paul Litner was appointed a member to the Financial Services Tribunal on September 9, 2002. Mr. Litner is a partner in the law firm of Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, and a member of the firm's Pension and Benefits Department. He specializes in providing advice on all legal and regulatory issues concerning pension plans and pension funds, including governance, administration and compliance, investments and documentation. Mr. Litner holds a B.A. from the University of Toronto (1985) and an LL.B. from Queen's University (1988).
Mr. Litner was previously a member of the Executive of the Canadian Bar Association of Ontario's Pension and Benefits Section, and is currently a member of the editiorial board of Pension Planning (Federated Press) and the editiorial advisory board for Humber College's Centre for Employee Benefits. He is a frequent speaker at continuing education programmes and regularly writes articles on pension legal issues for Benefits Canada and other pension industry publications.
Mr. Patrick Longhurst was appointed a member to the Financial Services Tribunal on August 9, 2009. He is a Certified Financial Planner and a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries. He has an M.A. in mathematics from St. John’s College, Oxford.
From 1973 to 2003 Mr. Longhurst held senior positions as a consulting actuary in a number of major pension and benefits consulting firms. He is currently president of Longhurst & Jack Inc., providing independent financial planning advice to individuals approaching retirement.
Mr. Longhurst is a frequent speaker on retirement topics, and has served as Chair of the Association of Canadian Pension Management, and a member of the editorial advisory board of The Benefits and Pensions Monitor. He was joint author, with Rose Marie Earle, of Looking After the Future – The Complete guide to Pension Planning in Canada. He was the 2006 / 2007 National Speaker for the Canadian Pension and Benefits Institute, and writes a regular column on pension issues for the Canadian MoneySaver Magazine.Mr. Colin McNairn was appointed as a special purpose member of the Tribunal on June 11, 2008. He served as Vice-Chair of the Financial Services Tribunal from 1998 to 2004 and as Chair from 2004 to 2007. He was formerly a Partner in the law firm of Fraser Milner Casgrain, practicing corporate and commercial law, and a Professor of Law at the University of Toronto. He holds a B.A. from McMaster, an LL.B. from Western and an LL.M. from Harvard.
Mr. McNairn is the author of legal texts on freedom of information, privacy and government immunity. He served as Research Director for the Parliamentary Committee on Equality Rights (1985), as Director of the Ontario Insurance Legislation Review Project (1990-1991) and, more recently, as Consultant on the development of modern insurance legislation for Trinidad and for Lebanon.
Mr. Jeffrey Richardson was appointed a member to the Financial Services Tribunal on August 12, 2008. Mr. Richardson has been working as a staff representative in the Research, Public Policy and Bargaining Support Department of The United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union (United Steelworkers) since 1999. The United Steelworkers represent over 280,000 Canadian workers in virtually every sector of the Canadian economy. He is responsible for providing technical support and assistance to local union officers and staff in the areas of collective bargaining, interest arbitration, economic and financial analysis and pension and benefits.
Mr. Richardson currently sits as a Trustee on the Canada Wide Industrial Pension Plan and the Steelworker Members Pension Benefit Plan and has held these positions since 2000 and 2001 respectively.
Professor Ralph Scane was appointed a member of the Financial Services Tribunal on August 11, 2004. Professor Scane retired in 1995 from the Faculty of Law of the University of Toronto, which he joined in 1967. After retirement, he continued to teach at that faculty as an adjunct instructor for several years. He was called to the Ontario bar in 1957, and was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1977. He practiced law in Toronto from 1957 to 1962, and from 1964 to 1967. From 1962 to 1964, he was a member of the law faculty at the University of Western Ontario.
Professor Scane is a member of the Canadian Bar Association. He has been active in the Trusts and Estates Section, and has served on the Council and several working committees of the Ontario branch of the C.B.A.
Ms. Elizabeth Shilton was appointed a member to the Financial Services Tribunal on May 18, 2005. Ms. Shilton recently retired from the Toronto firm of Cavalluzzo Hayes Shilton McIntyre & Cornish, of which she was a founding partner and former managing partner. She practiced labour law, human rights/constitutional law and education law, representing unions, professional associations and employees. She was a member of the firm's pensions and benefits practice group, and sat on the Executive of the Pension and Benefits Subsection of the Ontario Bar Association. Elizabeth is the co-author of Education Labour and Employment Law in Ontario and has also contributed many articles to journals and other collective works. Elizabeth is a graduate of the University of Toronto (B.A., M.A.), Dalhousie University (LL.B.) and Harvard University (LL.M.).
Mr. David A. Short was appointed a member to the Financial Services Tribunal on October 24, 2001. Prior to his retirement in 2006, he was a Partner at Eckler Partners Ltd. since 1975 and was head of that firm’s pension and benefits consulting practice from 1996 to 2003 and its Chief Financial Officer from 2003 to 2005. He holds an M.A. in Mathematics from Oxford University. Mr. Short is a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries and has served on and chaired several committees and task forces of that Institute and has served as an elected member of the Institute’s Council. He has also served two terms as a member of the Actuarial Advisory Committee to the Financial Services Commission of Ontario.
The Financial Services Tribunal meets quarterly.