Following Dutch Model, New Brunswick Leads Canada's Pension Model Reforms

On May 31, 2012 David Alward stood before the Legislative Assembly of the Province of New Brunswick, Canada. As Premier, he was about to preside over an event unprecedented in the history of the province. It was the last day before the legislature’s summer recess and Alward, as host of the occasion, had invited representatives from all six New Brunswick labor unions onto the floor, along with members of both the Liberal and New Democratic opposition parties and a special task force he had appointed after his 2010 election. After more than a year of research, planning and negotiation, the unified group of labor and elected officials had an announcement to make. The subject du jour: pensions.

The events of May 2012 have only just begun to be felt across the province and beyond its borders. Whereas many private companies and public jurisdictions have previously turned to employer-based, individual retirement savings plans as a solution to their employees’ future income needs, the citizens, politicians, union members and pension officials in New Brunswick sought and enacted a solution to providing real pension benefits that would be economically sound under 21st century conditions. Now throughout Canada, and beyond its borders, pension stakeholders are starting to take note.

随着2008年金融危机的爆发，新不伦瑞克省西部与美国缅因州接壤，东部与大西洋接壤，许多境内的公共和私人养老基金受到重创。很快就发现，通常的创可贴式的修复方法，比如增加对计划的贡献，这次是行不通的。

2010年10月底，阿尔沃德为了兑现竞选承诺，为解决养老金资金不足的问题，任命了一个由三名成员组成的工作组来解决这个问题。在一个特别具有政治意义的举措中，总理聘请了备受尊敬的劳工律师苏珊·罗兰（Susan Rowland）和长期担任保险精算师的保罗·麦克罗森（Paul McCrossan）领导这一努力。经济学教授、公共政策研究专家皮埃尔·马塞尔·德斯贾丁斯（Pierre Marcel Desjardins）组成了这个团队。经过一年多对全球养老金制度的研究，并将荷兰制度确定为他们的头号模式，新不伦瑞克养老金工作队宣布了一项新养老金计划的细节，该计划将比固定福利或固定福利“更安全、更透明、更可持续、更可靠、更负担得起和更可预测”捐款计划。它被命名为共享风险养老金。

“Shared risk would fix most pension problems in North America,” asserts Rowland, chief of the pension task force. With the shared risk model, New Brunswick became the first jurisdiction in North America to develop comprehensive funding and risk management procedures in the administration of pensions, that cover both asset and liability management while addressing the challenges faced by pension schemes today and into the future, underlines the report entitled, “Rebuilding New Brunswick: The Case for Pension Reform.”

新的养老金模式体现了荷兰养老金制度的最佳特点：专业管理的集合资产；严格和可预测的资金要求；以及以前不属于新不伦瑞克固定收益计划一部分的风险管理程序。就像荷兰的计划和美国的威斯康星州退休制度一样，共享风险计划的目的是根据其投资组合的表现进行自我修正。这意味着生活成本调整被取消，取而代之的是一种“股息”或减少的制度，这种制度随着年度投资组合资产规模的波动而变化。

Alward began his quest for a better pension model after several forest and paper products companies, the biggest industry in New Brunswick, took a severe hit during the dip in the housing market brought on by the 2002 downturn and 2008 financial crisis. Companies like Fraser Papers (in 2010) and St. Anne-Nackawic Pulp Co. (in 2004) saw their pension promises go up in smoke as they entered bankruptcy. When pensioners had their monthly checks slashed by 30 to 40 percent, Canadians learned that a pension promise could be broken. Soon public pension deficits came to light as Moody’s Investor Services and Standard and Poor’s Rating Services downgraded New Brunswick’s credit rating in 2009 and 2010, respectively.

One of the keys to making the new pension scheme a reality was the cooperation between political parties, public government and labor unions. “We adopted a collaborative approach to get it done,” explains task force member McCrossan. “When we designed the pension plan, the whole province took part in it,” adds the actuary who came back from his 2006 retirement twice: once to help the International Monetary Fund grapple with global pension issues ahead of the impending crisis and then again in 2010 when Alward appointed him to the pension task force. “The fear factor went away when we showed them the information,” agrees Michael O’Brien, a Fredericton city councillor and former finance committee chair, speaking about his own work with the unions and retirees.

省政府所在地弗雷德里克顿市有6个独立的养老基金，其中5个最初选择转移到新结构。伴随着新不伦瑞克省圣约翰市的养老金，旧计划的治理结构已经完全重新设计。在弗雷德里克顿市，原先由市政府管理的固定收益计划及其其他金融投资组合，现在根据法律规定，由八名受托人组成的独立董事会承担信托责任。董事会成员在理事会任命者和工会成员之间平均分配。

“六位工会主席在2010年7月走到了一起，”韦德·基尔斯泰德解释说，他是cupe3864的主席，cupe3864的正式名称是加拿大弗雷德里克顿市公共雇员技术和专业工会联盟（Canadian union of Public Employees'Technical and Professional union for the City of Fredericton）。那是该市养老基金首次升起严肃旗帜的时候。2亿美元的弗雷德里克顿市养老基金被发现资金不足5900万美元。这是规模较小的计划之一；规模最大的是新不伦瑞克省政府雇员基金，资产达50亿美元。基尔斯特德和他的工会领袖们让他们的成员支持这项改革。双方都有牺牲，雇员和雇主。例如，双方都将增加供款，40年内逐步提高退休年龄。与荷兰养老金一样，这些计划也必须获得超额资金，在本案中为115%，以满足新的法律要求。弗雷德里克顿市战略指导和咨询主管简•布莱克利（janeblakely）解释说：“每个人都会有一点收获。”。

To incorporate all the changes, the Canadian Pension Benefits Act had to be amended. So it was that on May 31, 2012, when the amendment was officially accepted, creating a Part 2 of the Act that made way for the new pension regime, that the entire legislature gave Alward, the union leaders, and the pension task force a well-deserved standing ovation for bringing about a change that protects the future retirement of the 47,000 public employees of the Province of New Brunswick.

展望未来，在新不伦瑞克省大部分养老金计划转变为新计划后，现在有计划正在酝酿中，将大部分计划合并为一个100亿美元的养老金计划。在新不伦瑞克以外，纽芬兰和拉布拉多的总理凯西·邓德代尔和爱德华王子岛的总理罗伯特·吉兹都在研究新不伦瑞克的养老金模式。

对加拿大来说，21世纪养老金计划的制定和通过证明，不同的养老金利益相关者群体——立法者、工会、雇员、养老金领取者和公民——有可能共同努力，确保公务员的安全退休。