Les Robb
MURA representative - Pension Trust Committee

Last January I reported that no pension increase would be forthcoming in the Salaried Pension Plan in January 2010 and that it was unlikely one would be forthcoming in January 2011. I reported that the plan would need to earn 18% or more to generate an increase – an earning rate very rare in the history of our Plan. I am sorry to report that I was correct, as the Plan earned only 6.47% for the year ending June 30th, 2010.

I have again done a calculation looking ahead and calculate that the plan would need to earn 17.25% or more to generate an increase next January 1st (2012). Things do not look good for indexing beyond that date either. As readers of this column will recall, the formula is based on the 5-year average return. Both the 2008 and 2009 returns were negative (-3.98% and -11.69%). Until these negative returns work their way through the formula and are replaced by decent positive returns, we can expect our pensions to remain fixed at the current level.