Pension Coalition NB

The Pension Coalition NB is a large group of retirees concerned the Government intends to change our vested defined/indexed/lifetime pension benefits earned while in the employ of the Provincial Government, NB Power, University of New Brunswick, Schools and Hospitals and various other Crown entities.

This group has begun the process of meeting with regional Government caucuses and has meetings scheduled with several other political parties starting this week. We would like to meet (separately) with the Moncton and Saint John caucuses as soon as possible.

Here is brief list of those PSSA retirees who are meeting with the Fredericton Caucus on March 19th. Retirees from your area would be included in a meeting with your regional caucus. We tried to have a small group that, for the most part, had a direct role with developing, administering, promoting or otherwise dealing with aspects of the PSSA pension plan so our in-house experience will be of assistance to you and your colleagues.
            
-  Bill Ayer – Chair Pension Coalition NB
-  Clyde Spinney - Retired Lawyer (Justice)
-  Cyril Theriault – Retired Director (Pensions Branch)
-  Bonny Hoyt Hallett – Retired Deputy Minister, (Former Executive Director, Nurses Association)   
-  David Wiezel (UNB Retiree, Human Resources)
-  Glen Wilson (NB Power Retiree)

To see the full list of the Coalition, please click "Our Team" on the top left side of the website. There will be a need for connection and representation with other parts of the province as the coalition grows.
 
We plan to have a short briefing sheet and several people would like to make few focused remarks at the start of the meeting. It is our hope that MLA’s will use the opportunity to understand the seriousness of unilaterally changing a longstanding, firm commitment by Government to defer part of our salaries into the PSSA specific defined, CPI indexed pension plan; hear information about pension holidays or deferring payments to counter some of the misleading information being provided to you on pension underfunding; note how the Task Force’s refusal to provide legitimate information specific to retirees has put elected officials in an uncomfortable situation and hear suggestions on how to positively avoid a protracted public and legal battle which is so unnecessary.
 
Our approach on this meeting is positive – that we need each other to solve this problem and our background on this issue should be of value to you and your colleagues. You are more than welcome to call me (452-0212 h or 261-9927 cel) if you would like to discuss further.
 
I look forward to hearing from you and hope you can set up a meeting, either in your area or Fredericton within the next week or so. I am cc'ing my MLA, Jack Carr, who suggested I contacted you and who has kept as current as possible (given the lack of information provided all involved by the Task Force for many months).
 
Thank you.
 
David Wiezel
Communications Committee