CRTA Pension Committee Meets Minister of Education: Minister to Investigate

On Wednesday, July 2, 2008, members of the CRTA Pension Committee and President Gordon Cumming, traveled to Edmonton to meet with Education Minister, Mr. Dave Hancock.  The Honorable Mr. Hancock was affable and very much a good listener.  In a meeting that lasted a bit longer than the hour allotted, we were able to inform Mr. Hancock as to the areas of our concern with the pension plan and to offer our thoughts on several major issues.  We are looking forward to hearing back from him.

Many events and actions have transpired since our last major meeting with the membership on the matter of pensions.  We wrote former Premier, Ralph Klein and subsequently met twice with his Executive Assistant, after which, a meeting was arranged with the, then, new Minister of Education, Mr. Gene Zwozdesky.  Interested in the issues we raised, Mr. Zwozsdesky determined that we needed a second meeting and undertook to examine several of the matters we raised in preparation for that event.

Before the second meeting was confirmed, however, Mr. Klein's retirement and the subsequent leadership race found us at the door of another new minister who was not inclined to the commitment of his predecessor, nor to meet with us personally.  Although we were assured that our position would be forwarded to the newly established Minister's Task Force on the Alberta Teachers' Pension Plan, we were not invited to those hearings.

As you may have expected, we made our own arrangements to meet with the Task Force and, although not listed in the final report, we presented the position and policies of the CRTA and advised the Task Force members of the folly of attempting to address only one of the failings of the plan (the unfunded liability).

Then came one more "historic" agreement on pensions, one more election and one more set of new Ministers.  Given the lack of positive response from the last Minister of Education and Minister of Seniors and Community Supports, we wondered about Premier Stelmach's assurance that our concerns and views would be heard. 

The manner in which retired teachers are now positioned in relation to the plan, intensifies our concerns.  First, we are told that the assets that were supposed to cover our pensions for service prior to 1992 have been depleted.  Second, the ATRF has clearly stated that it neither agrees with our perspective nor feels obligated to represent us.  Third, as part of the terms of what they call an "historic agreement", the ATA will seek no improvement in benefits for service prior to 1992, nor will it address issues that pertain to those with service during that time.

Finally, the Alberta Government accepted responsibility for the portion of the unfunded liability dealing with service prior to 1992.  However the government has yet to put forward any funds or a plan as to how this will be done.  Clearly, there is little support for retired teachers and the Pre- '92 liability consists of the funds that were to have been wisely invested to ensure our livelihood for the future.

As a result, your CRTA Pension Committee felt the need to ask the Honorable Minister where our money went and where the money is now, that portion that is to cover our pensions for the remainder of our lives.  We took the position that, instead of the government continuing the "pay as you go" thinking that got us into this situation, the money needs to be put up front and invested to ensure that our pensions continue.

We believe that with the pre '92 portion of the unfunded liability invested now, full cost of living adjustment for the Pre -'92 group is possible and we also believe that it is possible to address the error by which teachers, who retired with full index but were not yet 65 years of age, found themselves with less than the 2% pension promised.  Wise investment should enable that to happen.

As we all know, in 1994, the Premier of Alberta rolled back teacher salaries in order to help extract the province from debt.  He did so with a clear and public commitment to restore said monies once the provincial debt was cleared and times changed for the better.  Sure enough, salaries for practicing teachers did rise and government considered the promise fulfilled.  But that was not so for those whose highest five consecutive years of salary were affected by the rollback.  For those people, the effects of the rollback continue for life.  The Alberta Government's promise to retirees needs to be honored by recalculating the pensions of those who were affected.  This was clearly communicated to Minister Hancock.

Initially, Mr. Hancock expressed little sympathy for those who opted for the Loan/Advance option and found that it was not to their advantage.  Our position was that if there is an indignity that needs to be exposed for what it is, the Loan/Advance on CPP and OAS is it.  Many retirees are finding that they are paying more than twice what was advanced and that, for their lifetime, they will continue to pay at rates they deem to be usury.  We offered some examples to illustrate.

We advised the Honorable Minister that some of our more senior members were counseled to accept this so-called benefit and we questioned the propriety of offering such advice.  We also questioned how, under current consumer legislation, anyone can be required to take a loan for life, with no possibility of paying it off.  We question whether such a contract reduces seniors to anything more than indentured chattel.

Mr. Hancock was presented with documents illustrating how, recently, some retirees appear to have had their pensions altered unilaterally by the application of COLA to the advance and then to the reduction/payback.  This has resulted in another erosion of pension income. The Honorable Minister has promised to investigate.

As your committee breaks for the summer, it is with the realization that when we resume our efforts in the fall, we will abandon our efforts to address the failings of the Alberta Teachers' Pension Plan per se, in order to focus on what was promised and what is owed to retired teachers by a government that guaranteed the plan.