Feds Reject Proposal to Allow Coal Workers Early Access to Pension Benefits

A conveyor belt transports coal at the Westmoreland Coal Company's Sheerness Mine near Hanna, Alta., on Dec. 13, 2016. The Canadian Press/Jeff McIntosh

The federal government has rejected a proposal that would allow coal workers to obtain early access to their Canada Pension Plan (CPP) benefits for workers who face “earlier than planned” retirement due to climate regulations.

A letter by Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson in response to a parliamentary committee report making the proposal, said the recommendation “would create inequities.”

“The Canada Pension Plan is a comprehensive pension system for all Canadian workers, no matter what type of work they choose,” wrote Wilkinson to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (PACP) on Feb. 23, as first reported by Blacklock’s Reporter.

“Allowing specific groups earlier access to CPP benefits than others would create inequities and work against the measures that have been taken to make the Plan stable and sustainable.”

The PACP had proposed in their report to create a “pension bridging program for workers who will retire earlier than planned due to the coal phase-out.”

In 2016, the Liberal government hastened the phasing out of coal by setting a 2030 deadline—roughly 10 years ahead of schedule. According to the Coal Association of Canada at the time, some 42,000 Canadians directly or indirectly employed in the fossil fuel sector would be impacted.

Loss of jobs in the coal industry are among thousands of layoffs expected under the Trudeau government’s “Just Transition” program. Currently, provinces that operate coal-fired power plants are Alberta, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.

‘Threaten the Existence of Whole Communities’

A briefing note sent to Wilkinson last June warned that over 2.7 million Canadian workers will face “significant” job disruptions in sectors affected by future climate change programs.

“The transition to a low carbon economy will have an uneven impact across sectors, occupations and regions and create significant labour market disruptions,” read the note, titled “Key Messages on Just Transition.”

The memo referred to five sectors expected to experience “larger scale transformation.”

The building sector, which employs about 1.4 million workers, and transportation, which has about 642,000 workers, will be most impacted. These were followed by the agriculture sector, 292,000 workers; energy, 202,000 workers; and manufacturing, 193,000 workers.

A “Final Report” by a federal task force that studied the potential impact of “Just Transition for Canadian Coal Power Workers and Communities” noted that the phasing out of coal will threaten the livelihood of those people.

“Phasing out coal-fired electricity will disrupt people’s lives, cause families to experience financial stress and uncertainty, and threaten the existence of whole communities,” the report said.

“We cannot replace stable, good-paying jobs with precarious, low-wage work and leave workers and communities behind if we are to successfully transition to a sustainable, low-carbon economy.”

Peter Wilson contributed to this report.