Saint John council may soon control pension plan

Saint John council is expected to soon have control over the city's pension plan and thepower to make changes to deal with its crippling deficit.

Justice Minister Marie-Claude Blais introduced a bill Friday to repeal the City of Saint John Pension Act.

The repeal would give Saint John council theauthority to run the pension plan without having to go through the legislature every time it wants to make changes.

Premier David Alward says it's the best solution.

"What this does is reaffirm that the responsibity rests with the City of Saint John, like other municipalities in New Brunswick," he said.

The government bill is expected to pass before the legislature adjourns for the summer, with the Tories outnumbering the Liberals 41 to 13.

But the Liberals won't commit to a speedy passage of the bill.

"We need to do our job as Opposition, but we certainly want to respect the wishes of common council as well, but there are some issues that need to be addressed," said Interim Leader Victor Boudreau.

He wants to speak to Saint John city employees who have questions and concerns before his party can support the repeal, he said.

The new citycouncil votedearlier this week during a special meeting to ask the legislative committee to repeal its pension act to give the city greater flexibility in dealing with its pension crisis.

The city's pension plan has an estimated $193-million deficit.

Saint Johns pension plan is currently governed by a provincial law so any changes must be approved by the legislative assembly.

If the legislative assembly accepts the repealrequest, it would mean the city would no longer need the provincial legislature's approval to make some changes to the pension plan.

The city would, however, still have to follow regulations put in place by the provinces superintendent of pensions.

Fredericton and Moncton both run their own pensions through bylaws.

Saint John's newly-elected mayor Mel Norton has been travelling to Fredericton for meetings over the last two weeks to discuss the city's pension crisis, hoping to deal with it "once and for all."

The former city council had submitted aproposed reform packagefor consideration by the legislature.

But the new council was concerned the legislature might not have enough time to deal with reforms before adjourning for the summer around mid-June and that delaying reforms until November would likely require cutting millions of dollars more from the budget.

The former council had alreadycut about $9 millionfrom city programs and services across the boardas it wrestled with the deficit.

Under the proposed reform package, about 1,700 city workers and retirees would lose more than $100 million in pension benefits and city taxpayers would invest an additional $10 million a year to pay down the rest ofthe pension deficit.

The city's 2012 budget is based on the the proposed pension changes being approved.

The city had originally planned to have changes in front of the legislative assembly in December but missed a series of deadlines.

The city politicians then requested the legislature hold a special session in January so they could approve the pension reforms, but that request was rejected.