Report from the Chair – April, 2012:
The Emergency meeting scheduled for April 15th, saw about 88 members – Active and Retiree in attendance. Actuary Marc-Andre Vinson of Buck consulting made a presentation on the 2011 Valuation of the Plan (available here), followed by a question period and then distribution of the booklets (available here) containing the two options arrived at by the Trustees and put before the members for a vote. The vote saw an overwhelming majority choose Option 1. The valuation will be filed with FSCO prior to the May 31 deadline, with the requested funding shortfall measures adopted by the Plan membership. Approval should be completed and enacted by July 2012.
All members of the Plan have now had the objection forms mailed out to them. The objection form is gain the approval of members to allow the Plan Trustees to apply to amortize the debt over a longer term than five years. Five year amortization does not require approval, but would be too costly for our members to bear, so the options the Trustees made available were premised on approval by members and FSCO of a ten year amortization. Members have two options available to them with this form:
- If the member does approve of the request for approval of amortization over 10 years, they do not need to fill out the form or mail it in — just file or recycle it;
- If the member does not approve of amortization over 10 years, they should fill out the form and return it prior to May 31, 2012, with the clear understanding that if one third of either active members or retirees of the Plan or FSCO object to the proposed measures (amortization over 10 rather than 5 years), then the provincial regulators (FSCO) will step in and impose solvency measures that would likely see benefit level reductions for Plan members (it cannot enforce contribution increases, only reductions of expected benefits).
It bears noting that neither options will have any impact on the level of benefits that the Retiree members of the Plan enjoy; the changes to contribution levels will only affect Active members of the Plan, but all members (Active, Retiree, and Deferred) have a right to vote and object to the proposed method of resolving our solvency issue.
The two Amendments to the Plan Text (last page of the booklet) were presented to the members present with no objections. The Trustees will enact those proposals following approval from FSCO.