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This article, which appeared in the Edmonton Journal (September 24, 2013), is reprinted here with permission of Unifor. The article has been edited to conform to ATA style.
It is time for Albertans to address not only the needs of today, but the needs of tomorrow in ways that are constructive and that address the desires of all citizens, its business community and the government.
That is why it is so disheartening to see the Alberta government taking such an overly and unnecessarily aggressive approach to a pension problem it says hasn’t even arisen yet. The Alberta government announced this month that it would soon bring in legislation to cut early retirement benefits, limit contribution levels, cap pension improvements until 2021, and cut cost-of-living increases in government pensions as a way of curtailing its own costs.
The government calls this a “balanced approach,” but there’s nothing balanced about unilateral action. The pensions being built today are the consumer dollars of tomorrow when those workers retire. Not only should all workers be able to retire with dignity, it’s just good economics to ensure that when they do, they’ll have enough income to keep spending and contributing to the economy of the province.
But short-term cost-cutting today will only make the province’s economy and finances more challenging in the decades to come.
By Finance Minister Doug Horner’s own admission, “there is no crisis today” in Alberta’s government pensions. …
In Alberta, where there is no such crisis, the government and its workers could sit down and discuss the long-term needs of the pension plan and its members, and how to ensure a viable future for both.
Instead, the government of Premier Redford has chosen to legislate instead of negotiate. This is fundamentally undemocratic.
The pensions are the result of sincere negotiations between the government and its workers over many years. Alberta employees have given up other gains in the past to build their pensions to where they are today.
To unilaterally cut pensions today flies in the face of that tradition.
In difficult times, it is vital to find ways to work together instead of against one another. The province had an opportunity to do just that with its pension concerns. It could have come to its unions, including Unifor, in a spirit of common interests with its desires for Alberta’s pensions and begun a dialogue on where to go next.
There are, after all, many common interests. The government, its employees and the pension plans themselves all have a shared interest in ensuring that the pensions remain stable and well funded for decades to come. Alberta taxpayers, including those employed by the province or municipal governments, have an interest in not overburdening the province’s finances.
These are shared concerns, and should mark the starting point for fruitful discussions between the government and its unions on the secure future of pensions in this province. ❚
Scott Doherty is the western director of Unifor, Canada’s largest union in the private sector. Unifor has 20,000 members in Alberta.
