The College Pension Plan has announced that it will stop subsidizing extended health benefits for retirees and will also cap inflation protection in the near future. The announcement follows a decision by the College Pension Plan Board to press ahead with these changes despite an appeal from Presidents' Council to give Pension Plan Partners the opportunity to meet and consider other options.

The decision to cap inflation protection and cut the subsidizing of extended health benefits to retirees is certainly regrettable. FPSE has a long history of pushing for and negotiating provisions that ensure our pension plan provides quality benefits and protection to our members. This decision reduces many of the gains we have been able to achieve over the many years that our plan has been in place.

There is no question that today's extraordinary economic conditions have added new complications to many pension plans. However, those extraordinary conditions also mean that there needs to be a more extensive level of communication between the College Pension Plan Board and our Presidents' Council to ensure that, whatever changes are made, we have had an opportunity to canvass alternatives. We know, for example, that other public sector pension plans are facing similar problems and that part of the solution to these problems may well be to revamp regulations governing pension plans rather than simply cut benefits or cap inflation protection.

Despite this latest announcement, FPSE plans to meet with Pension Partners as soon as possible to work on alternatives to what the Pension Plan Board has proposed. With these changes taking effect later this year, we want to use the intervening months to find better outcomes than what has been drafted to date. We also plan to work with other unions in the broader public sector to push for regulatory changes that will help plans like ours maintain benefits despite short term uncertainties.

Our collective resolve has always helped us through tough times. I'm confident it will help us prevail on this issue too.