The Nova Scotia government has announced it’s making a change to provincial pension regulations in order to help flailing Dalhousie University.
The Halifax-based university and representatives from its faculty association have been at odds over pension issues, salaries and benefits. Yesterday, the faculty association filed 48-hour walkout notice, meaning the school’s 870 professors, instructors, librarians and counsellors could walk off the job Saturday.
One of the key issues on the table is the university’s request that faculty agree to a jointly sponsored pension plan that would make faculty share responsibility for funding shortfalls. Dalhousie’s pension plan is underfunded by $270 million, but a jointly sponsored plan would entitle the university to solvency relief.
However, under the regulation change, Nova Scotia university plans are exempt from the solvency test. A solvency test looks at whether a DB plan can meet all of its obligations if the employer was shut down or went bankrupt.