Union pushing pension protection message

The union representing federal pension plan holders says the upcoming federal budget could target retirement savings of public service employees to tackle the deficit.

The union representing federal pension plan holders says the upcoming federal budget could target retirement savings of public service employees to tackle the deficit.

And to thwart this possibility, the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), which represents more than 166,000 workers – including more than 4,700 government employees in the Yukon – has embarked on a preemptive public relations campaign.

Last evening in Whitehorse, PSAC president John Gordon and the union’s northern representative, Jean-François Des Lauriers, addressed more than 100 people who turned out at a public meeting, one of several the union is holding coast-to-coast, to press its message.

“Although the Harper government has not come out and said it in so many words, we have a strong sense that the upcoming (federal) budget is going to contain some measures that will attack public sector pensions,” Des Lauriers told the Star this morning.

In Ottawa last week, Treasury Board president Stockwell Day stated the government “want(s) to maintain the integrity of our public sector pension plans” following a meeting with PSAC brass, but stopped short of assuring pension plans were off limits.

Both Gordon and Des Lauriers said the government’s silence on the matter is particularly worrisome for members.

“A number of organizations closely related to the Harper, Reform (Party) and Conservative political movement have been out in the media ... spreading lies, basically distortions in regards to public sector pensions,” Des Lauriers said.

The C.D. Howe Institute and Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) are among groups PSAC refers to as “right-wing think tanks” that the union believes have the ear of the federal government.

Public servants now make 32 per cent of contributions to their plans and the government picks up the difference, but the C.D. Howe Institute recommends employees pony up half the costs, as is the case in Ontario, Alberta and Quebec. This could save $2.6 billion over six years, according to the institute.

Meanwhile, the CFIB thinks the government must rein in its burgeoning bureaucracy and that public servant pensions are too expensive and understated on government books by more than $58 billion.

While Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said the federal government is committed to pension reform during a meeting between himself, provincial and territorial Finance ministers in Whitehorse last December, there has since been no indication what shape reforms could take.

Often referred to as “gold plated” and the reason many seek work in the federal government, public servants’ pensions are among the best in the country.

But public servants pay more than most Canadians for the privilege, contributing more than eight per cent of their wages, which allows them to collect pensions worth up to 70 per cent of their salary, calculated from their most lucrative five years of service.

This week, territorial opposition parties weighed in and both Liberal Leader Arthur Mitchell and NDP House Leader Steve Cardiff urged Premier Dennis Fentie to lobby Harper on behalf of Yukon government pension holders.

“It’s time for Mr. Fentie to stand up to his fellow Conservatives and tell them to keep their hands off,” Mitchell said in a press release issued Monday. “It should be a pretty straightforward case of standing up for Yukoners.”

The premier declined to comment on the issue this morning and referred the Star to the territory’s Finance department.

“I won’t speak to any letters or press releases,” said Deputy Fininace Minister Dave Hrycan. “I will say the (territory’s) budget comes out this Thursday, and the Yukon government … will respond to any budget matters that affect Yukoners. Right now it’s all speculation.”

In Cardiff’s case, the NDP MLA wrote a letter directly to Fentie requesting that the premier “protect pension plans that actually work and improve retirement security for all.”

And it’s a message that PSAC and Yukon’s Liberal MP Larry Bagnell are echoing.
When Flaherty held court with his Finance colleagues in Whitehorse, PSAC came to the Yukon to tout its idea for augmenting the Canada Pension Plan to increase retirement incomes for all Canadians.

Bagnell said his party is keen on improving the pension system across the board and offered this advice to the Conservative government in Ottawa.

“You don’t improve pensions to Canadians by making the ones working not work. What the government should be doing is working on the people who don’t have pension plans ... we’re looking at the whole pension system.”

In 1999, a Liberal federal government with then-Finance minister Paul Martin minding the shop skimmed $30 billion off the pension surplus to help pay off the national deficit.

Later this year, the Ontario Court of Appeal will hear a challenge by unions representing public service employees that the money be returned.

In October 2007, an Ontario Supreme Court judge ruled that 700,000 public servants, military and RCMP were not entitled to any of the surplus in their pension plans.