MINUTES – FIRST ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF THE
CANADA LIFE CANADIAN PENSION PLAN
MEMBERS’ RIGHTS GROUP Oct.5, 2004
Opening Remarks by Wib Antler– A welcome to all. Votes will be a show of hands (scrutineers are John Melville and Brooke Biscoe).
Introduction of the “core committee” ; Wib Antler, Ed Barrett, Phil Davy, Don McIntyre, Jim Martin, Gary Nummelin. All have over 30 years in the industry and are no longer working and are standing for election today.
Background to the group’s formation – Because of company changes to the wording on the employee pension benefit statement in 1997, Wib Antler started questioning the changes and changes since then. He was subsequently joined by a small group which evolved into the current “core group”.
We are concerned only with the Canadian Pension Plan. The pension legislation, we are concerned with, has an upper limit. We are not dealing with, the “supplemental plan” which was created for higher salaried staff to be able to exceed this limitation.
We represent; Pensioners or Beneficiaries receiving plan benefits, plan contributing Employees, those entitled to deferred benefits. Included are agents and managers since the plans were merged in 1997.
Activities by the Group – Replies were not forthcoming from the trustees and as well, the company replies were late, incomplete and sometimes not at all. We then met with FSCO (Financial Services Commission of Ontario) and learned much from the files. They have provided assistance in getting answers regarding; whether the company can get administrative expenses, now over $ 30,000,000, from the fund, return on investment, formation of an Advisory Committee, trustee roles, surplus ownership, partial and full wind-ups and retention of the indexing benefit. The company has been asked to respond on some and they again filed for a reply extension ( to November 12th.)
A visit with FSCO, pertaining to the sale of Canada Life Casualty, eventually resulted
in the company switching their basis to a different section which now states that the entitlement to surplus is unclear from their initial position that it was the company’s.
Also, last January, we have met with a prominent legal firm specialising in pensions. They suggested that we increase our numbers to at least 1,000 and establish a “war chest” for a very probable fight in court against GWL/Power Corporation.
The web-site, established in 2001 and Newsletters in September 2002 have been of tremendous assistance in recruiting and in communicating with plan members. We now have over 500 members.
Major Outstanding Issues by Jim Martin – Partial Wind-up (PWU) of the plan
- Aug 27,2003 Canada Life applied for Partial Wind-up starting July 10,2003 and
extending over the next 18 to 24 months. On July 29,2004 Supreme Court ruled 7-0
on Monsanto vs Superintendent of Ontario.
- Ownership of surplus
What Monsanto means to us. The Ontario Pension Benefits Act requires the
distribution of pension surplus on both a full or partial wind-up.
Procedure for distributing surplus to an Employer is;
“Notice of Surplus Application” to Superintendent
“Transmission” of Surplus Notice to affected members (PWU group)
Submission of “Written Agreements” of 2/3 of PWU group
Superintendent’s Proposed Decision transmitted to Applicant & any person
who has made a written representation
Hearing within 30 days from Proposed Decision
Plan Administrator notifies PWU group
NOTES- There is a desire, that companies do full disclosure, and this includes surplus.. The plan liabilities are some $ 300,000,000 and a surplus of over $ 200,000,000 suggests that an offer of a low amount such as $1,000 or two pales as to what a reasonable offer should be on a partial or even a full wind-up.
- David Kidd will be preparing a paper, which we will post, explaining the age and
service equal and greater than 55 implications.
- People should get their own legal advice as to their own position. Depending on
years of service, position and other aspects, a settlement should not be construed as
all people being handled the same way.
In the case of other companies, events occurred so rapidly that employees were in
“catch up” mode and so they never had the time to create a constitution. However,
we have a head start. We have the opportunity to not only have a constitution and bylaws but to raise our numbers and create a war chest.
We have two categories of members. Those contributing monies will be voting members and the others will be non-voting members. However, both will share in our successes.
- Motions for adoption of constitution and Fees (initiation and annual)
Motion # 1 - The Constitution on the web-site dated Oct.3,2004 be adopted.
Proposed by Ed Barrett and seconded by Fraser Hale.
Unanimously carried as there were no dissenting votes.
Motion # 2 – That the annual fee be $ 25.00 due now and on each subsequent
September 1st until changed and the initiation fee be $ 100.00.
Proposed by Ed Barrett and seconded by Al Miller.
Unanimously carried as there were no dissenting votes.
Election – Wib Antler
Nomination, from the floor by Fred Taggart and seconded by John Cartmell that Alex Harvey also stand for election.
Next a motion to elect Wib Antler, Ed Barrett, Phil Davy, Alex Harvey, Jim Martin,
Don McIntyre and Gary Nummelin was so moved by Al Miller and seconded
by Gordon Connant. No dissenters and so all unanimously elected.
Membership and Fees – Phil Davy
Please complete the membership forms now or send in later.
- Repeated the need to recruit and increase our size to at least 1,000.
- We need to have people keep us informed of their latest Email and address updates.
Future Meetings
- Annual Meeting will have information posted in August into early September.
- Regular Meetings will be posted so that voting members will be aware.
- Any special meetings will be announced when the need arises.
Nature of Future Communications
- We will continue using the web-site and sending out Newsletters.
- You will be kept informed and notified of our progress, issues and any special meetings.
Closing - Wib Antler thanked everyone for their interest, assistance and in coming.
Other – Answers were given for questions raised. These are not all being listed. To do so would be a repetition of much of the material already posted on our Web-Site. We strongly urge you to review the site’s material and newsletters.
- The $100.00 will be towards the war chest and any unused annual fee monies as well. Annual fees will be for normal needs such as the meeting room rental.
- A class action is cheaper than our paying for all legal costs as we carry on. A class action, if lost, has the law firm on the hook for it’s time. A win would have the law firm take it’s costs from, for example, our part of the surplus. This would be quite a small per cent. The war chest will support us to get to this point.
- Mergers of pension plans must be between equivalent groups. One cannot be in the black and the other in the red.
- Again, we ask your support in recruiting many more new members so that we will get to have a Loud Voice and listened to.