Nova Scotia considers changes to pension legislation

The Nova Scotia government is considering changes to pension legislation that would undermine your accrued defined benefit (DB) pensions.

Nova Scotia’s Department of Finance and Treasury Board has asked stakeholders to provide feedback on its review of the funding framework for defined benefit plans and other regulatory issues.

Question 10 of the consultation paper asks: “Should defined benefit plans be permitted to convert to target benefit plans, including benefits earned in the past?”

The answer is clearly no.

Permitting defined benefit plans to convert already-earned benefits to target benefits would allow employers to transfer significant risk to workers and retirees, after years of sacrifice for their defined benefit plans.

While the consultation focuses private sector plans (those registered under Nova Scotia’s Pension Benefits Act) there may be implications for plans in the public sector, which are established by different legislation.

Unifor members in the federal jurisdiction are familiar with this question. After Justin Trudeau’s Liberals quietly introduced Bill C-27 in October 2016, we launched a successful campaign to educate our members and Federal Liberal MPs about the history of this proposal and negative impact such changes to pension legislation can have on workers and retirees.

If similar legislation is adopted in Nova Scotia, significant risk could be transferred from employers to workers and retirees, after years of sacrifice for their defined benefit plans.

TAKE ACTION NOW:

CLICK TO Email and electronically sign the petition to Nova Scotia’s Minister of Finance

READ and SHARE Unifor’s backgrounder.

HELP US STOP C-27

On October 19, 2016, Bill C-27, An Act to amend the Pension Benefits Standards Act, 1985, was quietly introduced in the House of Commons. The Bill establishes a framework for single-employer target-benefit pension plans (TBPs) in the federal private sector and for Crown corporations.