Municipal Pension Plan – A joint Employer and Union Trusteeship

I recently attended the Your Pensions, Your Future session at Kitsilano.  This is the similar to the session that CUPE 391 was going to present at the now cancelled Staff Conference.  It is an excellent presentation for informing you how your pension statement works.

I am on the CUPE BC Pensions Committee.  At a recent meeting I acquired a powerpoint presentation from BcIMC – British Columbia Investment Management Corporation, the crown corporation that invests your pension dollars for you.  I have asked Human Resources to link this report to the Staff Bulletin Board as it is inappropriate to have this information on the blog.  Here are some acronyms to add to your library workers lexicon.

Municipal Employees Pension Advisory Committee (MEPAC)
Some members and staff advisors to the CUPE BC Pension Committee attend MEPAC meetings three times a year. MEPAC is responsible to provide a forum for education/training and development of pension committee activists and potential union pension trustees. MEPAC provides input and a forum for debate for the Municipal Employees Pension Committee (MEPC) unions and for Municipal Pension Plan trustees. MEPAC is open to all unions who are certified under the Labour Code and have members contributing to the Municipal Pension Plan. Trustees attend as guests but do not have a vote unless they are delegates from their union. The MEPAC delegates from time to time provide recommendations on policy matters to the MEPC for their consideration.

Municipal Employees Pension Committee (MEPC)
The MEPC is the member plan partner in the Municipal Pension Plan (MPP) Joint Trust Agreement. The MEPC consists of 6 union organizations. The major unions are CUPE BC, the Health Services Division of CUPE (HEU), Health Sciences Association of BC (HSA), BC Nurses’ Union (BCNU), the British Columbia Federation of Police Officers, Professional Firefighters Association of BC, and the Council of Joint Organizations and Unions (COJOU) representing smaller unions. They meet as necessary each year. They are individuals who have the overall responsibility for monitoring the activities of the MPP, appointing the MEPC trustee as well as the retiree trustee. Usually, senior officers of these organizations are named by the organization as MEPC delegates.

bcIMC was established as a trust company under the Public Sector Pension Plans Act in November 1999 and became operational January 2000.  The Agency has a long history of providing investment management services to B.C. public sector pension plans:
• 1980s agency was part of Provincial Treasury
• 1994 Minister’s trust duties and responsibilities transferred to the Chief Investment Officer, which led to the Office of Chief Investment Officer (OCIO)
• Gives pension and other trust clients a greater role in the management of the agency (e.g., budget & resources)
• Joint trustee initiative of the statutory pension plans led to bcIMC’s establishment as a separately managed corporation
• Resolves perceived conflicts of interest between government policies/decisions and
• management of trust funds

bcIMChas the legal authority to provide funds management services from Public Sector Pension Plan Act.  Its specific mandate is determined by client/trustees (pension trustees) as operating at arms length from the government to avoid potential conflicts that can develop between government’s policy decisions and the management of public sector trust funds;
By legislation bcMIC’s client base is restricted to:
• British Columbia public sector pension plans
• Publicly administered trust funds
• British Columbia provincial government
• British Columbia government bodies

bcIMC’s Funds Management Services

bc MIC provides the following service for the Municipa Pension Fund: tactical asset allocation, risk management, securities trading, security selection, credit review and analysis, cash management, economic and market analysis, and securities settlement