The federal government is proposing a deal with the provinces that aims to streamline supervision of pooled registered pension plans (PRPPs) by giving the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) sole oversight of these vehicles, the Department of Finance Canada announced on Wednesday.

The proposed agreement would give OSFI, the federal financial regulator, responsibility for licencing, plan registration and ongoing supervision in participating provinces. It will be available to any province that has adopted PRPP legislation, the goverment says.

The aim of the proposed agreement is “to establish an efficient and low cost regulatory environment” for PRPPs. In participating provinces, it would allow plan administrators to only deal with one supervisor, and to only pay a single set of licencing and registration fees, the government notes.

Kevin Sorenson, Minister of State (Finance), called the proposed agreement a “major step forward” for PRPPs, which have been one of the current government’s primary efforts at enhancing retirement saving opportunities for Canadian workers that don’t have access to a workplace pension.

“It will support a high level of regulatory harmonization across jurisdictions, and will be instrumental in streamlining administration, increasing the scale and portability of PRPPs and achieving low costs,” he said.

The proposed agreement is being published for a 45-day public comment period.