24 In Schmidt v. Air Products Canada Ltd., 1994 CanLII 104 (SCC), [1994] 2 S.C.R. 611, Justice Cory summarized the theory that is applicable to pension plans and what should be understood under a plan where both the employer and the employees contribute. A contrario, it must be understood that the mindset of an employer’s sole contributor plan, as is the case with the MEA-ILA plan, changes the decisional power relationship of the plan. If, however, the fund is impressed with a trust, different considerations apply. The trust is not a trust for a purpose, but a classic trust. It is governed by equity, and, to the extent that applicable equitable principles conflict with plan provisions, equity must prevail. The trust will in most cases extend to an ongoing or actual surplus as well as to that part of the pension fund needed to provide employee benefits. However, an employer may explicitly limit the operation of the trust so that it does not apply to surplus. The employer, as a settlor of the trust, may reserve a power to revoke the trust. In order to be effective, that power must be clearly reserved at the time the trust is created. A power to revoke the trust or any part of it cannot be implied from a general unlimited power of amendment. Funds remaining in a pension trust following termination and payment of all defined benefits may be subject to a resulting trust. Before a resulting trust can arise, it must be clear that all of the objectives of the trust have been fully satisfied. Even when this is the case, the employer cannot claim the benefit of a resulting trust when the terms of the plan demonstrate an intention to part outright with all money contributed to the pension fund. In contributory plans, it is not only the employer's but also the employees' intentions which must be considered. Both are settlors of the trust. Both are entitled to benefit from a reversion of trust property. (pages 655-656; emphasis added)
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