All municipal workers, school board education workers, support staff, and child welfare or CAS workers in Ontario are members of the OMERS Pension Plan.
Your pension is a big part of your overall compensation – remember, every dollar you contribute to OMERS is your deferred wages.
Through your union, you need and deserve a strong voice in how your pension is managed.
All of that is now uncertain at OMERS. After an extensive review of the plan and a report which recommended many things CUPE supported, the Ford Conservatives passed Bill 68, which “cherry-picked” specific recommendations that will significantly change how OMERS operates and communicates with its members.
Deep within Bill 68, the government reinserted itself into the OMERS Act, seizing control over your pension with regulatory powers gifted to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.
THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS and unlike any other Jointly Sponsored Pension Plan in Canada. The Ford government’s Bill 68 has disrespected sponsors, like our union, by directing OMERS staff to draft new rules of operation for sponsors, rather than having sponsors write them themselves.
Bill 68 reintroduces a legal duty on sponsors, which will hurt our ability to bargain for your interests and lead to the same confidentiality problems that prompted this review in the first place.
Many sponsors, both unions and employers, are concerned about the changes in Bill 68, and we are working together to address these issues. The government has signalled that they may be willing to make changes, but we need your help here to apply pressure to ensure that they do.
The Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, along with your local MP, needs to hear from you directly. Twenty years ago, our union and others mounted a successful campaign to make OMERS an independent pension plan free from direct government control. It is time for us to come together and do it again. Your retirement depends on it.
