Pension decision praised
LEADER-POST MAY 26, 2011
The head of a prominent national business organization is giving high praise to Regina city council for its efforts to deal with the high costs of providing publicsector pensions.
Catherine Swift, the president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, said the recent city council decision on pension issues in Regina should be "a call to action,'' that other cities and governments across Canada should follow.
"Time is of the essence for other cities and levels of government to take action,'' Swift said, in a news release issued Wednesday.
"It is profoundly unfair and financially irresponsible that Canadian taxpayers are not privy to the extent of their indebtedness to the unfunded public sector pension plans,'' Swift added.
At a recent meeting, Regina city council decided to reject a proposal to approve contribution increases to the Civic Employees' Superannuation and Benefits Plan.
"The proposed increase would have cost taxpayers and the City of Regina alone an estimated $3.8 million or the equivalent of a 2.72 per cent property tax hike,'' Swift said.
The CFIB news release said pension liabilities for federal civil servants are estimated at $200 billion and countless other provincial and local governments are also facing big pension liabilities.
Virginia Labbie, senior policy analyst Saskatchewan and Agribusiness with the CFIB, said it is encouraging to see Regina get national recognition for taking leadership on an issue of importance across the country.
"What this boils down to is affordable and sustainability,'' Labbie said, adding that's issues about public sector pensions need to be addressed locally, provincially and nationally.
"The time is ripe,'' to deal with the issue,'' Labbie said, in a telephone interview.
The CFIB will continue to lobby all levels of government - including the recently re-elected federal Conservative government - to deal with pension issues, Labbie said.
"We are not calling for changes to past benefits that have already been earned,'' Swift said.
"However we are calling on governments to reform public sector plans along the lines of what is happening to many private sector plans,'' Swift said.
More specifically, Swift said benefits need to be reduced for people who retire in the future and government defined benefit pension plans need to be converted to defined contribution plans.
"These are necessary steps in striking a better balance between taxpayers and public sector employees,'' Swift said.
"The decision by Regina city council to move forward on pension reform should be a call to action for other cities and levels of government,'' Swift said.
"As decision makers in this country we hope leaders will be courageous and do the right thing by joining Regina in taking the important first steps toward pension reform,'' Swift said.
© Copyright (c) The Regina Leader-
Read more:http://www.leaderpost.com/business/Pension+decision+praised/4842077/story.html#ixzz1NaXg0x6j
No comments:
Post a Comment