This is an archive of news stories and research from the National Union of Public and General Employees. Please see our new site - https://nupge.ca - for the most current information.
Losses renew PSAC’s call for joint trusteeship of their members’ pension plan and an end to rewarding of bonuses to investment fund managers
Ottawa (24 July 2009) – Canada’s largest federal public service union, the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), is fuming over the fact that a total of $3.8 million in annual and deferred incentive bonuses was paid to the top six executives who manage their members pension plan at a time when the value of the pension fund declined by 22.7 percent in the last fiscal year.
In its annual report released yesterday, the Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSPIB), the federal Crown corporation that manages the plan’s investments, said its net assets dropped to $33.8 billion from $38.9 billion — a loss of $5.1 billion — in the last fiscal year, which ended March 31, 2009. Including the $4.4 billion in employee and employer contributions during the year, the total loss is $9.5 billion.
PSPIB manages the contributions made to the federal government’s three pension plans – the public service, the Canadian Forces, the RCMP and the Reserve Force Pension Plan
James Infantino, PSAC’s Pensions and Benefits Officer, told the Ottawa Citizen, “The losses are breathtaking. It’s very disconcerting. We have no role in the management of the plan or the management of the funds. These people, who knows who they’re responsible to. We’ll be the ones holding the basket at the end.”
This is the second year PSPIB portfolio has declined in value having dropped 0.3 per cent for fiscal 2008. Infantino points out that the PSPIB has underperformed against the established policy benchmark in five of the nine years since it started managing the federal public service pension funds in April 2000.
PSAC has long called for joint trusteeship of its members’ pension plan and Infantino noted that the latest poor investment results will renew the union’s call to see employee representation in the management of its pension plan as well as a call to end the rewarding of bonuses to investment fund managers.
NUPGE
The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) is one of Canada's largest labour organizations with over 340,000 members. Our mission is to improve the lives of working families and to build a stronger Canada by ensuring our common wealth is used for the common good. NUPGE