The Ontario government has reached a deal with three major public-sector pension plans to freeze contribution rates, a move that could help eliminate the province’s $14.4 billion deficit in five years. The agreements, signed with the Ontario Public Service Employees Union Pension Plan, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan and Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology Pension Plan, will freeze contribution rates for five years, except in exceptional circumstances. Finance Minister Dwight Duncan said the pension changes should save up to C$1.5 billion over the next few years. Absent from the deal was the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan.
The Ontario government announced it has also downsized its proposal to create a pension super fund in Canada by pooling assets from pension plans from community colleges, universities and the province’s largest public sector union. OPSEU and CAAT, however, are no longer part of the proposal.