/R E P E A T -- Public sector pension plans: the AQRP asks the Fraser Institute to retract its statement/

QUÉBEC, Sept. 26, 2012 /CNW Telbec/ - The Association québécoise des retraité(e)s des secteurs public et parapublic (AQRP) is asking the Fraser Institute to correct the data shown for Quebec in the study of Canadian public sector pension plans that was released today. "On the complex subject of retirement, exactness is called for, in order to avoid an unwarranted scare campaign about our pension plans," declared the President of the AQRP, Mrs. Lyne Parent.

Contrary to the statement made in the Fraser Institute's study, it is not true that the $74 billion liabilities of Quebec's public sector pension plans are unfunded. In fact, according to Quebec government budget documents, the value of the Retirement Plans Sinking Fund (RPSF) represents over 60% of the value of that liability. Therefore the "net" pension plan liability comes to $28 billion, an error of over $45 billion by the Fraser Institute.

The description of the net pension plan liability, prepared by Quebec's Ministère des finances, is available at this address (page D.5):
http://www.budget.finances.gouv.qc.ca/Budget/2012-2013/fr/documents/Planbudgetaire.pdf

The Fraser Institute's study asserts the following: "Quebec reported unfunded liabilities of $75 billion". It is available at this address:
http://www.fraserinstitute.org/uploadedFiles/fraser-ca/Content/research-news/research/publications/canadas-254-billion-iceberg-public-sector-pension-liabilities.pdf

With nearly 28,000 members, the AQRP is the main independent association of Quebec government pensioners. There are over 285,000 public and parapublic sector pensioners in Quebec.

SOURCE: AQRP - ASSOCIATION QUEBECOISE DES RETRAITE(E)S DES SECTEURS PUBLIC ET PARAPUBLIC

Martin Lanouette, Communication Agent, 418 805-1282
Mathieu Santerre, Director of Communications, 418 928-2608
[email protected]