To:  Richard Bertrand
Chairman, Board of Governors, 
University of Ottawa
From: APRUO
Date: March 7, 2001
Re:  The Constitution of the Pension Plan Committee
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While you are aware, of course, of the composition of the PPC, it may be propitious to begin by drawing your attention to its imbalance in relation to the various constituencies its members represent in relation to the 4,014 members of the plan, active, retired and deferred (as of December 31, 1999), who alone own the fund:

- 4 members represent the active academic staff who number 951 and amount to 23.69% of the plan’s members, one of whom (for reasons inexplicable to us) is not even appointed at large but is named by the Dean of Medicine to represent the relatively very small number of active clinical teachers of that Faculty.
- 3 members represent the active support staff who number 1497 and amount to 37.29% of the plan’s members.
- 1 member representing all retirees and surviving spouses who number 1077 and amount to 26.83% of the plan’s members.
- 2 members representing the Board of Governors.
- The Director of Human Resources Service.
- A Chairperson appointed by the Board of Governors (who is a member of the active academic staff).
- No one represents the 489 persons in the deferred category who amount to 12.18% of the plan’s members.

Whereas this unfair imbalance has existed from the start, it became a matter of particular concern to the retired professoriate with the onset of deliberations regarding the reform of the pension plan when it became apparent that their interests were being largely ignored by a committee the structure of which placed the majority of its members in an unavoidable conflict of interest, the advantages sought by them on behalf of their constituents being inconsistent with the rights and interests of retired members. The contribution holidays taken by both the University and the active members, along with the generous surplus-financed improvements to the pension plan being pressed for by active members for their exclusive benefit, led to much bitterness, mistrust and, finally, the establishment of the APRUO. It was clear to retired professors and support staff alike that under the initial proposals they were to receive substantially less than their fair share of the surplus, a conclusion confirmed by a Senior Pension Officer of the Financial Services Commission of Ontario who wrote that "it is the benefits and contributions of those past employees which have given rise to the surplus." 

While we note the uneasy resolution of these particular differences and feel that a certain degree of rapprochement has been achieved, we think it obvious that these difficulties could have been averted and a far more timely (and, dare we say, better) resolution of the pension surplus issue reached had we possessed a greater voice in the Committee’s deliberations throughout the process. Not surprisingly, then, we feel that appropriate representation for retired professors and support staff on the PPC is essential to the sound and fair functioning of that Committee. 

The retired members of the plan outnumber the active members who are represented by four Committee members, and our woeful under-representation must be redressed by the establishment of  three additional positions on the Committee, one to be filled by a member APRUO and the other two by members of the retired support staff.

Whereas the PPC may be simply an advisory committee, clearly its advice is of relevance and importance and, in the management of the capital of the fund (if not its occasional surpluses), that advice is invariably followed. To maintain the present gross imbalance in the input of the two classes of members of the plan regarding the formulation of that advice would be to perpetuate an injustice that we think amounts to a breach of trust. We therefore respectfully request that the Board of Governors review the composition of the Pension Plan Committee with a view to correcting this anomaly without delay.

 ___________________    ________________________
Maurice Jetté,     Bert Hubbard                         
President, APRUO     Secretary-Treasurer, APRUO

cc.  Marcel Hamelin, Rector
Pierre-Yves Boucher, Secretary
William F. Rentz, Chairperson, PPC
Louise Pagé-Valin, Director of Human Resources
Denise Carroll, President, Association of Retired Support Staff