October 31, 1985 (33rd Parliament, 1st Session)

Mr. Ross Belsher (Fraser Valley East):

Mr. Speaker, in April of this year the President of the Treasury Board (Mr. de Cotret) announced that an agreement had been reached with the unions representing Public Service employees on the principles to govern the introduction of pension plan revisions. Both the Government and the unions agreed that Public Service pension plans would be funded and administered in accordance with accepted practices of major private-sector employers.
This means that current indexing of pensions would be replaced by an inflation protection feature based upon the earnings of the fund. Placing Public Service pension arrangements on a sound financial basis is a proposal with much merit.
I hope that an agreement can be made which would allow the retention of current indexing for those federal employees who have retired from the Public Service. This latter statement is one which I made public to federal superannuates in

October 31, 1985

my constituency on June 21 this year. 1 now state it again. My stand on this issue has not changed.