Regina Pensions

[cottonpicken]

Poor bastards,nice little ponzi scheme,and not the last.

Members of Regina's city council were given an earful Monday from a visibly irate group of people concerned about the future of the civic pension plan.

About 7,000 current employees and current pensioners are facing uncertainty for their retirements after the provincial regulator threatened to wind up the pension plan, which has a large deficit.

"Council really screwed up, didn't they?" retiree Peter Philp said as he left the council meeting Monday night.

Council members had just been given information on the pension, as of 2013. They received the report without making any decisions.

Dozens of people, watching in the gallery, appeared unimpressed.


Kirby Benning, a firefighter and chairman of the Pension and Benefits Committee for the civic pension plan. (CBC)

"Honour the deal," several called out, referring to an agreement that had been reached, but not implemented, concerning the future of the pension plan.

"I'm hoping that the mayor and council see this is a strong message with everyone showing up here," Kirby Benning, a firefighter and chairman of the Pension and Benefits Committee, said after the meeting. "I'm hoping they'll get back to the table and get this deal finished."

Benning addressed council members earlier in the evening and suggested the city should adopt a better mechanism for resolving issues surrounding the pension plan. His presentation did not elicit any response from council.

"Unfortunately, council hasn't impressed me lately," Benning said later.

Regina is trying, mayor says


Regina Mayor Michael Fougere says it has been very difficult to get a diverse group of employers and employees to agree on pension plan changes. (CBC)

Regina's mayor, Michael Fougere, insisted city officials have been trying to reach an agreement that could be approved by the provincial regulator. According to Fougere, the agreement that was tentatively reached was not enough for the regulator.

Fougere said meeting dates have been proposed, as recently as July 14, but no progress was made. He noted the pension plan involves five different employers. The largest groups are current and retired workers from the city (with 2,936 plan members) and the Regina Qu'Appelle Health Region (with 2,448 plan members).

"There are over 20 employee groups," Fougere also pointed out. "You can imagine the difficulty in trying to make a decision ... it's easier to decide on who wants dinner and where to go, compared to making a decision on the future of the plan."

Problems with the civic pension plan have been brewing for several years as evaluations have repeatedly shown that funding for the plan has regularly fallen short of its obligations.

According to the city, the plan — as of 2013 — has a funding shortfall of $240 million. The city's calculation includes a "safety margin" of 10 per cent of the liabilities. Without the safety margin, the deficit is about $117 million.

[Fransisco]

Its going to be a problem everywhere not just in Regina. Public pensions where never set up properly in the first place, there is way too much "pay as you go" built into them vs. actually putting money aside for retirement.

One of the reasons infrastructure is so bad is that we're using too much of today's tax dollars to pay the guy who filled the potholes 20 years ago a pension.

Its just not sustainable, at some point these pensions will have to take a haircut. Yeah its going to suck for those involved but when you decide to make promises on behalf of your grandkids before they are even born you shouldn't be surprised if they're not overly keen on keeping them.

[wilagro]

Sure...pare the pensions and SCREW the little guy. Pay the big money to the Dep't heads and their subordinates.

There doing it in Alberta too...the big brass get the cash and the workers get SBA.

[boarderbloke]

Gov'ts change the rules midstream ALL THE TIME! They do it against farmers, against big and small business, now they're doing it against big unions! All I can say is suck it up. Look how they changed the rules with foreign workers, or Agristability, just like that.

[Hopperbin]

Wow. Well hopefully most still have cpp As well as another pention plan. So they used others contributions to feed past retirees. No investmentto build upon. If it was not for immigration and inviting billions into canada the whole country would be screwed. Cpp is another screw job thatvno one should be relying upon.

[sumdumguy]

Wilagro, I agree with you. The cats at the top are way too fat. Just cut out 50 of them earning 200-400 thousand Plus expense accounts would save 10 - 20 million a year. It would recoup pretty fast. As for the unnecessary stadium, forget it.

This mumbling mayor na-na-na-na. He says the council meeting is not the time to talk about the mismanagement.

[cottonpicken]

As far i as know cpp,is fully funded in canada(along with ui-massive surplus actually)but in the states their old age is not.

But here its all about healthcare and education which i think account for 80% of tax revenues?(the feds just closed the 6% annual increase to the provinces,for healthcare,so that should be interesting)which is basically the ponzi.

It works until you have more people taking than contributing,which is extremly unfair to young people who will not get the same level of care their paying for to people getting it now.

Basicaly UNFUNDED LIABILITIES,which is the silverback gorilla in the room that will rip us all apart but back to topic.....

Current government PENSION plan liabilities,are running into the 300 billion dollar range,even the ontario teachers plan is 45 billion short.

Austerity can be implemented 2 ways,actually doing it,or inflating it.Cut the guys check in half and get linched or pay it and leave him scrathing his head over why it isnt worth anything.

[mbdog]

OK OK I'll soften it up.
This can simply got kicked way to far down the road.

[Hopperbin]

Cotton shit is going to hit the fan. I put my contribution into resp for myboldest daughter. She is just starting universitym. 10 grand is my contibution over 5 years. Feds is 2500 province about 800. I have 10 grand in that account today. This account was ignored for past 8years. No profit at all ****ing loss.

[blackpowder]

Which is also part of the problem. A financial industry that is geared to commissions, sales, options, underwriting, whatever it takes to make a profit on turnover but who cares about the underlying company or the security, or the shareholder/investor?
Promising the moon at any cost leads to expecting the damn thing for free!
$40 - 60k/year for a career of 25 -30 years and a retirement of another 25 - 40 at full pay indexed to inflation with a pay in of never enough to cover it.

[sumdumguy]

I visited with a cousin from out east. He has managed major hotels for his lifetime. No pension - surprising. They say he can not retire. No farm to sell either.