submitted to GlobeandMail

The Editor,
Dear Sir,

Your front-page pensions story, which suggests public sector defined-benefit pension plans may be headed for the same fate as many private-sector plans (it appears to this non-economist) misses an important point: my teachers' pension plan was fully paid for by me and my employer. It was part of my salary, and administered by an independent body, not my employer. My compulsory contributions were raised when the plan's actuaries determined that there were problems ahead, and when I retired my part of the plan was already fully-funded.

As I understand it, many private-sector pension plans, such as the Air Canada pilots' one cited, are administered by the company and are in trouble because the employer replaced actual investments with what were essentially promissary notes. Consequently, when such employers run into trouble, the pension plan is among the first things to go.

A simple law requiring all employers to put the money up front (or, better yet, increasing the contributions and payout of the Canada Pension Plan) would go a long way to solving this issue.