Retirees from Groupe Capitales Médias (GCM) and the Canadian Federation of Retirees demonstrated on Sunday afternoon in front of the National Assembly to demand the establishment of insurance to protect private pension funds.
Inspired by the Ontario model, this measure would serve to protect retirees from a reduction in their pensions following the bankruptcy of their former employer.
In the past, tens of thousands of Quebec retirees have seen their pensions significantly reduced, sometimes more than half, when their employer went bankrupt or placed itself under the protection of the Labor Arrangements Act. creditors.
“It happened to retirees from Nortel, Papiers White Birch, Sears Canada and, more recently, Groupe Capitales Médias; in the latter case, nearly 1,200 plan participants have lost between 20 and 30% of their pension, ”detailed Sylvain Gaudreault, MP for Jonquière and the Parti Québécois spokesperson for work.
Quebec has no mechanism to help retirees, unlike Ontario which covers loss of pensions up to $ 1,500 monthly.
Together with actuaries and the Observatoire de la Retraite, the Canadian Federation of Retirees estimated that the total solvency deficits of defined benefit pension plans in Quebec were $ 26.8 billion in 2019, a sum that companies no longer have to reimburse since 2016.
Quebec could however set up annuity insurance with only 1.5% of the “gift” of $ 26.8 billion made to companies, estimated the Federation.
Retirees have asked the Quebec government for more transparency with regard to pensions. The associations notably asked the Minister of Finance, Eric Girard, to make public the state of all solvency deficits of defined benefit pension plans in Quebec.
They also deplored the lack of response from Prime Minister François Legault to the request of the Canadian Federation of Retirees to set up a committee of experts on annuity insurance.
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