It was bound to happen: anything that touches union “entitlements” results in uncivilized behaviour. 

To protest Bill 3, which would reform their retirement plans, municipal employees began various actions such as police wearing colourful pants and other civil servants wearing pajamas to work on “Lundis mous”(soft Mondays). Some union members went so far as storming Montreal City Hall, under the passive look of the police. (Photo Montreal City Hall: Trodel/Foter/CC BY-SA)

The unrest was predictable as the bill allows a municipality to retroactively suspend the inflation-indexing of retirees’ benefits. 

But most municipal employees are complaining with their bellies full. Indeed, very few people can boast such a generous retirement plan. Firefighters, for example, can retire after only 25 years of service and receive as much as $43,400 annually, after contributing a mere 6% of annual salary ($4,400) to their retirement plan, according to L’Actualité. 

In comparison, an ordinary worker wanting to retire as early and as wealthily would need to contribute $668 weekly, starting at age 20 ($34,736 per year), according to the Régie des Rentes. Of course, he couldn’t do so, since annual contributions to RRSPs are limited to $23,820 or 18% of salary.

The bill will correct this nonsense and increase contributions to a 50-50 sharing. This will require some sacrifices, but since legislation gives municipalities until 2020 to make the adjustment, employees will have plenty of time to adapt to the change. 

Besides, it can be done without confrontation. Last year, the city of Saguenay signed an agreement with its 17,000 employees that, among other things, makes them finance 50% of their retirement, pushes retirement to age 60 and decreases their heirs’ annuity. The only thing left is reducing the actuarial deficit, which the provincial bill also divides equally between the municipality and active workers.

It’s about time, since the municipal taxes that have been funding the deficits have increased enough already. According to Statistics Canada, the consolidated increase has been more than 34.4% between 2002 (the year of the municipal mergers) and 2008, compared to the provincial cost-of-living increase of about 12.7%. 

Municipal unions need to finally realize that their retirement plans have been funded by taxes. Quebecers are taxed enough already; they need to keep more of their own money and do with it as they see fit rather than funding retirement plans they can’t even dream of.