Letter to Education Minister Ron Liepert

EDMONTON: In a letter to Alberta Education Minister Ron Liepert, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) today offered to fill the seat rejected by the Alberta Teachers' Association (ATA) on the teachers' unfunded pension task force.

"If taxpayers are going to be asked to pay off a $2.1 billion debt currently owed by teachers, why not have a member from Canada's largest taxpayer advocacy group sitting at the table," asked CTF-Alberta director Scott Hennig. "We want to ensure the government isn't going to hand over $2.1 billion of taxpayers' money and get nothing in return."

The task-force was recently created to address the teachers' portion of the unfunded pension liability, which currently sits at $2.1 billion. This $2.1 billion debt owed by teachers is based on an agreement signed by the Alberta government and the ATA in 1992 where the Alberta government committed to pay two-thirds of the pre-1992 teachers' pension unfunded liability ($4.3 billion), and the ATA agreed to pay one-third ($2.1 billion).

$25 million was included in Budget 2007 as a one-time "good-will" gift to teachers to pay off some of their portion of the unfunded liability. The ATA has since rejected the way the $25 million of "free money" will be distributed to teachers.

"The government already gave teachers $25 million of taxpayers' money this year and got nothing in return, and we don't want to see this happen again," continued Hennig.

"$2.1 billion is a lot of money, equal to about $600 per Albertan. I'm positive most Albertans, at the very least, are going to want to get something very significant in return for taking on a new $2.1 billion debt, if they would agree at all," concluded Hennig.

A copy of the CTF's letter to Minister Liepert can be found here: Letter to Education Minister Ron Liepert or by contacting the Alberta office at 1-800-661-0187.