General Updates and News

[Arrdeeharharharbour]

Originally Posted by Colin May

HRM retirees have not had an increase in their pension. An increase was not allowed because the plan was never fully funded. Details of the plan are available in the footnotes of the HRM audited statements and more details are in statements and independent actuarial valuations of the HRM Pension Plan website. Minutes of the pension plan committee are available online. The committee members must be members of the pension plan as a employee or as a retiree. There are no independent members representing the taxpayers
Documents are here : https://hrmpensionplan.ca/about-us/plan-documents/pension-committee-minutes
Look at the number of HRM employees at a recent meeting of the committee ....
https://hrmpensionplan.ca/themes/user/si...mmittee_Meeting_Minutes_Final_Signed.pdf

I've heard that perspective employees at HRM have declined employment due to the cost of the pension plan to themselves as an employee. But this isn't unusual for young folks who don't yet realize that they will grow old and want a pension.

As for the term 'underfunded', I understand that there are at least two types of underfunded which are essentially just tools to control the contributions necessary from employees and employers. As I understand it, a pension plan can be considered quite healthy whilst being 'underfunded'. This is not to say that being underfunded in anyway is a perfect situation, but rather it's a lot less dire than this provocative word might suggest.