Plans are well under way for the first General Meeting that is set for October 5, 2004 at 2 o’clock. The meeting is set from 2 PM to 4:30PM. The meeting will be held at:
25 Old York Mills Rd.
Toronto, Ont
M2P 1B5
The church is within walking distance of the York Mills Subway stop at Yonge and Wilson/York Mills. To get to the church walk one block east of Yonge on York Mills. Then turn south on Old York Mills Rd. and it is a very short block to the church, which is on the west side. Please mark your calendars and RSVP if possible by September 30th if you plan to attend. We urge you try to attend if at all possible.
An agenda will be posted on the website shortly, for your information. In addition outlined below is a question and answer section that will be helpful in preparation for the meeting. The primary purpose of the meeting is to update everyone on all developments regarding the pension plan and to elect a slate of Directors whose responsibility will be to move the process forward with Canada Life/Great West Life/Power Corp.
The following core members (including our newest member of the Right’s Core Group) will stand for election:
Wib Antler
Ed Barrett
Phil Davy
Jim Martin
Don McIntyre
Gary Nummelin
Nominations closed at midnight September 15th, 2004. However please note that nominations will be taken from the floor at the General meeting.
As a result of the last newsletter, membership is now almost 500.There are approximately 50 to 70 members added after each newsletter so we hope to be well on our way to meeting the target of 1000 members by year-end.
With all the lay-offs at Canada Life and people going in many different directions we have lost touch with a few members because of a change in e-mail address. A number of members received the newsletter at a Canada Life e-mail address. Because of this their newsletters are returned when these individuals leave the company. Please remember to advise us if your e-mail address changes or you know of some other member’s address change, so no one misses out on the crucial developments now in sharp focus.
Attention hotmail users: Many of our members who use hotmail find that Newsletters are not delivered to their Inbox. We suspect that hotmail treats them as spam, due to the large number of recipients. They may automatically go into the junk folder, or they might be stopped by MSN before getting to the individual addresses. We do not receive any notification of non-delivery. Please ensure that the clpens@trigger.net address is on your “safe” list. We have also set up smaller mailing lists for hotmail users for this mailing, and would appreciate feedback.
The Constitution is now posted on the web site in preparation for the General Meeting. Please take an opportunity to review it prior to meeting. At our October 5th General Meeting we propose to adopt this Constitution.
FEES
In order to move to the next level in dealing with the company we need to establish a war chest in anticipation of payment of legal fees to outside counsel. To date the group the current core group has voluntarily donated their own money but as we outlined in Newsletter 10 if we are to be successful in protecting member’s rights we will require money to do this.
A motion will be introduced at the Oct 5th General Meeting to propose an initial fee of $100 plus an annual dues of $25 for a total of $125 in 2004.This money will be used for a number of initiatives such as:
o Attendance at industry meetings dealing with current topics such as the Monsanto Case
o Website development
It is highly likely that the question of who owns the surplus will require legal action based on past precedents. There are two ways of handling the costs associated with this. One is a special assessment of the members. The other is to proceed with a class action lawsuit in which the law firm gets paid only if the case is won. Both have been employed successfully by other rights groups but it is too early to determine how our group should proceed if the need arises. We will however require funds to at least begin discussions with outside counsel.
Those who choose to contribute will become voting members and those who don’t will still remain within the membership group but be classified as non-voting members.
SURPLUS UPDATE
The 2003 Financial Statements are now available. The key items are that the assets increased by $85M and the return rate of interest was 13.71%. The surplus should therefore be somewhere around $250M.
Q. What’s in it for me?
A. Currently the Canada Life Pension plan has a very large surplus that as outlined above is estimated to be in the neighhood of $250M. It appears that most companies take the position that the surplus belongs to them. However our position that most if not all the surplus is for the benefit of plan members and not GWL/Power Corp. It is likely that the courts will have to interpret who owns the surplus but regardless of the final outcome this could represent thousands of dollars to the plan members.
Q. If it is determined that the surplus belongs to the plan members how is my share determined?
A. This is a good question but one that is hard to answer at this time. Factors such as age, length of time in the plan, amount of benefit are all-important in determining one’s share but as outlined above there could be a lot of money at stake.
Q. There seem to be various stakeholders within the Members’ Right Group. Is there potential for conflict among the various stakeholders.
A. The mandate of this group is clearly outlined on the website. The group has been established to protect the rights of all the members. There are at least four distinct groups:
o Pensioners and beneficiaries
o Deferred members
o Terminated employees
o Active employees
While there is a distinct probability that those in the “partial plan windup” will receive surplus allocation before other members it will clearly set a precedent on how future surplus allocations will be handled. So our position is “one for all and all for one”. We will also endeavor to make sure all stakeholders are included in the core group. In addition if the need arises that sub group are required to protect the interest of one of the stakeholders then it will be done.
We hope to have a large turnout on Oct.5th that will mark the next stage. See you there!!!
Wib Antler
Gary Nummelin
Phil Davy
NOTE: Previous newsletters are available on our website. The Group’s website is http://www.trigger.net/~clpens/ . If you have received this newsletter by mistake, or if you wish to be removed from the mailing list, please send an e-mail to clpens@trigger.net with the subject of “Unsubscribe”. If you have information or opinions to share with the group as a whole, send your submission to clpens@trigger.net, and we will post them online, with as little editing as possible