Ontario reaches deals with 3 public sector pensions
Posted October 23, 2012 11:56 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The Ontario government has reached deals with three public sector pension plans that freeze contribution rates for five years and save taxpayers $1.5 billion, finance minister Dwight Duncan says.
The agreement was struck with the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOPP), the Ontario Public Service Employees Union Pension Plan and the Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology Pension Plan on Monday evening.
“These deals will freeze contribution rates by both employers and employees for five years except in very exceptional circumstances,” Duncan said Tuesday. “This will help make sure these pension plans do not add to employer and taxpayer cost if addressing a new funding shortfall.”
Duncan said there are a number of unions in the HOPP plan, and the CUPE portion of that plan doesn’t agree with the deal, “but that’s a matter for their internal board.”
He also said that the teachers’ pension plan has not signed an agreement with the government.
“We have the option of legislating [a deal] and my hope is they’ll reconsider,” he said.
