PSAC is disappointed to see the government once again pocket the hard-earned pension contributions of federal public service workers.  

The federal government has announced it will move $900 million from the Public Service Pension Fund surplus into its Consolidated General Revenue following the release of the latest Special Actuarial Report on the pension plan. 

In a statement Thursday, Treasury Board President Shafqat Ali said the surplus will be combined with last year’s surplus — bringing the total to $2.8 billion transferred from the pension plan into the government’s coffers. 

“Our position has always been that any public service pension surplus should be invested back into the workers who've contributed to the plan their entire careers,” said Sharon DeSousa, PSAC national president. 

“A better path forward would be for the government to reverse the discriminatory two-tier pension system for federal public service workers and to integrate the early retirement initiative into the existing workforce adjustment process negotiated by unions.” 

The unfair two-tier pension system, introduced by the Harper government in 2012 for federal workers who started on or after January 1, 2013, forces them to work five years longer to reach full retirement. This inequality is fundamentally unjust.   

PSAC will continue to fight for a pension system that is fair, equitable, and respects the contributions of every worker. Pension surpluses belong to the workers who earned them, not to the government’s general coffers.