Warning message

Please note that this page is from our archives. There may be more up-to-date content about this topic on our website. Use our search engine to find out.

Municipal and school board retirees called on the Ontario government and Premier Ernie Eves to ignore recommendations for autonomy and governance of OMERS (Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System) made by the maverick executive board that runs their pension plan.

Instead, they want the government to allow the unions that represent their interests to be given adequate time to negotiate real decision-making control of OMERS, which is the third largest pool of investment capital in the country.

The retirees, who are among the nearly 300,000 active and retired members of OMERS, say their interests are being compromised by a board more interested in doing the governments bidding than safeguarding the interests of plan members and retirees.

Its the interests of OMERS retirees, many of whom are living in poverty, that the board should be protecting, says CUPE Ontario president Sid Ryan.

This money belongs to the plan members and retirees whose wages have built up the plan. The government should be providing municipalities and school boards with adequate funding. It should not rely on the dollars from the OMERS contribution holiday to fund public services, says Ryan.