A bill has been introduced into New Brunswick’s provincial legislature today aimed at repealing the City of Saint John Pension Act, reports Cbc.ca.
If the bill introduced by Justice Minister Marie-Claude Blais is passed, it would give Saint John city council the power to make changes to the city’s pension plan without having to go through the legislature. Council voted earlier this week to ask the legislature to consider repealing the act, in order to give the city more flexibility to deal with its estimated $193-million pension deficit.
The 2012 budget from the recently elected Saint John city council was built on the presumption that proposed pension reforms that the previous council had submitted to the legislature for consideration—including a more than $100-million reduction in pension benefits for 1,700 city workers and retirees and an additional investment of $10 million per year from municipal taxpayers to help pay down the pension deficit—would be approved.
Currently, the New Brunswick cities of Fredericton and Moncton are both able to run their own pensions.