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National Trust
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For more information call us at 1.800.451.3225 |
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Status as at December 4, 2002
Previous updates are archived on this site. Click
here to review them.
Great news - On November 22, 2002 the Ontario Court of Appeal released its
long-awaited decision in the "Monsanto Case", at which AFTER had intervenor
status. The result was a unanimous 3-0 decision in our favour.
As reported in the November update, the Ontario Provincial Government
introduced proposed amendments to the Ontario Pension Benefits Act (PBA),
which, if passed would, retroactively to 1988 (15 years), wipe out rights of
thousands of members of defined benefit pension plans. The changes were
embedded in a huge omnibus bill, Bill 198 “Keeping the Promise for a Strong
Economy (Budget Measures) 2002”, affecting 25 different Provincial Acts. Click
here to read the 20-page PBA portion and a 2-page summary.
A groundswell of opposition to these changes was led by MPP for Toronto
Centre-Rosedale, George Smitherman, Liberal Financial Institutions Critic, with
support from the NDP caucus. Finance Minister Janet Ecker, and/or Premier Ernie
Eves, were questioned daily in the Legislature and the media became very
interested. As the tide of criticism grew the Government realized the bill must
be revisited. On November 28th, 2002 Janet Ecker's Ministry of Finance issued a
press release with the headline. "PENSION AMENDMENTS IN BILL 198 WILL NEVER BE
PROCLAIMED".
Two of your negotiating committee members had an informal meeting with Finance
Minister Janet Ecker on November 27th and we have her personal commitment that
she will formally meet with us and our lawyer(s) to hear our concerns. The
Government plans to put the PBA amendments out for further consultation before
re-introducing them to the House for full debate.
You may have recently read newspaper articles quoting the Association of
Canadian Pension Management (ACPM) as initially being supportive and
"applauding the Government's bravery in making new surplus-sharing rules
retroactive to 1988". We point out that this is the only group, aside from
Scotiabank and Monsanto Canada Inc., aligned against AFTER and FSCO throughout
the Monsanto court proceedings.
The ACPM is a national association apparently speaking for over "750 members
representing plan sponsors, trustees and administrators, pension industry
professionals and service providers". They claim to work on behalf of over 3
million pension plan members across Canada, but we question this statement. We
believe they work for the employers of those plan members and the interests of
those employers. We base our belief on the ACPM's reaction to the Monsanto
decision in which their spokesperson stated she "was angered by the Monsanto
ruling".
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