Political Advocacy Report

By Dennis Kozak, Committee Chair

At a September meeting, the Political Advocacy Committee recommended to the Board of Directors that the topic of official recognition of RTAM by the MTS be placed on the RTAM/MTS Liaison meeting agenda. The meeting took place in January.

Our committee collected data from 8 of the 10 provinces of Canada on how school taxes are levied.

Our committee studied retirement data of our 16 000 retirees to see if our members who are 85 years of age or older could use some type of COLA enhancement. There did not seem to be any practical or fair method to accomplish this.

The Committee then met with TRAF officials via zoom to continue the discussion of COLA, including data which had been received. Ideas were exchanged. At the time of writing this report (March 31st), the Committee has not made a final recommendation to the Board of Directors. It is important to note that retirees do not make any further contributions.

Historical Note: At an MTS AGM in 1977, the teachers voted to increase their pension contributions. The total funds received from this increase of contributions was the start of COLA. These funds were given to the teachers who had retired prior to 1977.