Page Content
Shelley Svidal
Three resolutions on the Teachers’ Pension Plan were up for debate when Alberta Alliance Party members assembled in Red Deer for their fall policy and constitution conference, November 2 and 3.
The first resolution called on an Alberta Alliance government to fulfill the commitments made in the 1992 memorandum of understanding between the Government of Alberta and the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) regarding the unfunded pension liability. Party President Randy Thorsteinson, who put forward the resolution, expressed his belief that the memorandum assigned two-thirds of the unfunded liability to the government and one-third, to teachers. The intent of the resolution was to ensure that each side honoured its part of the agreement, he said.
ATA District Representative Jere Geiger, who represented the Association at the conference, pointed out that the entire unfunded liability belonged to government. In 1992, teachers agreed to pay one-third of the cost of the unfunded liability because their pension plan was in danger of collapsing, he said.
The resolution was amended to commit an Alliance government to ensure that all commitments made in the memorandum of understanding were fulfilled by both sides. A majority of members voted to accept the amended resolution.
Thorsteinson then withdrew the other two resolutions he had put forward, one calling on an Alliance government to fund an actuarial study of the benefits of moving all new teachers into a defined-contribution pension plan and the other calling on an Alliance government to hold a binding provincial referendum before signing a new memorandum of understanding with the ATA on the unfunded pension liability.
Members also debated a resolution calling on an Alliance government to eliminate the education portion of the municipal property tax and fund education entirely through general revenue. The resolution was tabled after Alliance Leader Paul Hinman questioned its constitutionality. "The provincial government never should have pooled the education money," he said, referring to the government’s 1994 decision to collect and redistribute the education tax rather than allowing school boards to retain the revenue raised from local taxpayers.
Meanwhile, members voted to delete a policy calling on an Alliance government to "support the traditional definition of marriage as being between a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others." The policy was deleted not because members present at the conference supported same-sex marriage but because, according to Chief Financial Officer Jane Greydanus, the policy was inhibiting Albertans from joining the party.
Founded in 2002, the Alberta Alliance Party elected one MLA—Hinman—in the 2004 provincial general election and received 8.7 per cent of the popular vote.
Also In the News
