Premier prepares to do battle with teachers again

You have to give Premier Stephen Mcneil credit for being consistent; however, in this case, I do not mean it as a compliment.

Once again, it appears he is setting up to go head to head with Nova Scotia teachers. This large group of dedicated public servants seems to be a favourite target of his.

It was in 2017, that Mcneil forced a contract on teachers that they were very unhappy with, which kind of sets the stage for the new contract negotiations later this year.

To compound what is likely to be a precarious exercise, Premier Mcneil has already angered teachers by wanting to include a discussion of the underfunded portion of the teachers’ pension plan in the upcoming contract negotiations.

Understandably, NSTU President Paul Wozney sees these as two separate issues, and thus deserving of two separate discussions. Wozney cautions it is not fair to these hard-working teachers to play politics with their pensions

The issue of the underfunded teachers’ pension is not a new one, despite concerns voiced by Auditor General Michael Pickup last fall, when he advised the government to take steps to address the situation.

For those not familiar with the NS Teachers’ Pension Plan there a few things that you should know. The plan is funded yearly by teacher contributions through payroll deductions, by taxpayers, and by investment income. One of the issues impacting the pension fund at this time is that there are more teachers currently drawing a pension, than there are those who are still working and contributing to the plan.

In an effort to stem the unfunded liability in the plan, over the last few years teachers’ contributions have increased. Currently, working teachers who make less than the Year’s Maximum Pensionable Earnings (YMPE) contribute to the pension at a rate of 11.3 per cent. Those who earn more than the YMPE contribute 12.9 per cent. By contrast, our elected provincial MLAS contribute to their plan only 11 per cent of earnings.

Another thing you should know is that even though a working teacher contributes to both the teachers’ pension and the CPP, the government has linked the plans together such that once a retired teacher starts to draw their CPP, their teachers’ pension is reduced, by eliminating what the government calls the bridging amount.

Further, as a result of an agreement back in 2004, teachers on pension only receive indexing based on cost-of-living if the teachers’ pension plan is funded at a minimum of 90 per cent. So, while retired workers on other pensions get their indexing, teachers have not received an increase in their pension since 2006, because the funded level of their pension has not reached this agreed-upon minimum. It is just too bad for teachers that the cost of living has gone up considerably the last almost 13 years!

Back to the politics. Teachers will be going into the upcoming contract negotiations already distrustful of the Mcneil government because of the way both they and the education system have been assailed by this authority over the last few years.

Mcneil said recently that including discussions on how to fix the $1.4-billion pension shortfall does not automatically preclude other financial aspects of the upcoming teacher contract negotiations. He has further advised teachers that after five years, they should know by now who they are dealing with. He is clearly already setting an adversarial tone.

I’m not sure if Mcneil treats teachers this way because he doesn’t care, because he doesn’t want to listen to them, or because he thinks he knows better than 9,300 professional educators do about what the education system needs and how it should be run.

It is hard to know exactly how contract negotiations will play out, but one thing we do know is that with the weight of a majority government behind him, at the end of the day, Mcneil will force on the teachers whatever it is he wants.