Note 6 - Pension Benefits

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2013

Compensation and Retirement Disclosure [Abstract]

Pension and Other Postretirement Benefits Disclosure [Text Block]

6. Pension Benefits

The following sets forth the components of net periodic benefit cost of the Company’s defined benefit pension plans for the nine months ended September 30, 2013 and 2012:

	Nine months ended September 30,
	Pension Benefits
	U.S. Plan						Canadian Plan
	2013			2012			2013			2012
Service Cost	$	-		$	10,500		$	-		$	-
Interest Cost		155,981			85,000			38,477			37,840
Expected return on plan assets		(168,137	)		(80,500	)		(51,745	)		(41,525	)
Net actuarial loss		-			-			27,569			6,871
Amortizations		106,207			47,000			-			-
Net periodic benefit cost	$	94,051		$	62,000		$	14,301		$	3,186

	Three months ended September 30,
	Pension Benefits
	U.S. Plan						Canadian Plan
	2013			2012			2013			2012
Service Cost	$	-		$	5,250		$	-		$	-
Interest Cost		39,637			42,500			12,588			18,884
Expected return on plan assets		(42,726	)		(40,250	)		(16,929	)		(20,723	)
Net actuarial loss		-			-			9,019			3,429
Amortizations		26,989			23,500			-			-
Net periodic benefit cost	$	23,900		$	31,000		$	4,678		$	1,590

The Company has frozen the accrual of any additional benefits under the U.S. defined benefit pension plan effective July 15, 2005.

Effective January 1, 2009, the Company converted its pension plan for its Canadian employees (the “Canadian Plan”) from a noncontributory defined benefit plan to a defined contribution plan. Until the conversion, benefits for the salaried employees were based on specified percentages of the employees’ monthly compensation. The conversion of the Canadian Plan has the effect of freezing the accrual of future defined benefits under the plan. Under the defined contribution plan, the Company will contribute 3% of employee compensation plus 50% of employee elective contributions up to a maximum contribution of 5% of employee compensation.

The Fair Value Measurements and Disclosure Topic of the Accounting Standards Codification (the “ASC”) requires the categorization of financial assets and liabilities, based on the inputs to the valuation technique, into a three-level fair value hierarchy. The fair value hierarchy gives the highest priority to the quoted prices in active markets for identical assets and liabilities and lowest priority to unobservable inputs. The various values of the Fair Value Measurements and Disclosure Topic of the ASC fair value hierarchy are described as follows:

Level 1 — Financial assets and liabilities whose values are based on unadjusted quoted market prices for identical assets and liabilities in an active market that the Company has the ability to access.

Level 2 — Financial assets and liabilities whose values are based on quoted prices in markets that are not active or model inputs that are observable for substantially the full term of the asset or liability.

Level 3 — Financial assets and liabilities whose values are based on prices or valuation techniques that require inputs that are both unobservable and significant to the overall fair value measurement.

The fair value hierarchy of the plan assets are as follows:

		September 30, 2013
		US Plan		Canadian Plan
Cash and cash equivalents	Level 1		102,515		11,295
Mutual funds	Level 1		263,456		1,268,527
Corporate/Government Bonds	Level 1		680,378		-
Equities	Level 1		1,030,949
Total			2,077,298		1,279,822

US pension plan assets are invested solely in pooled separate account funds, which are managed by Bank of America Merrill Lynch. The net asset values (“NAV”) are based on the value of the underlying assets owned by the fund, minus its liabilities, and then divided by the number of units outstanding. The NAV’s unit price of the pooled separate accounts is not quoted on any market; however, the unit price is based on the underlying investments which are traded in an active market and are priced by independent providers. There have been no significant transfers in or out of Level 1 or Level 2 fair value measurements.

For additional information on the defined benefit pension plans, please refer to Note 10 of the consolidated financial statements included in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2012.