Gatineau municipal workers join Quebec pension protests
Province wants municipal workers to shoulder provincial pension deficit
Municipal workers in Gatineau are heading to Quebec City today to protest proposed changes to their pensions by the province.
Quebec’s Liberal government said in June they’ll be changing municipal pension plans to take on some of a $4 billion deficit in the provincial pension plan.
- Bill 3 hearings on pension reform begin today in Quebec City
- 'Savage' pension protest at Montreal city hall condemned by mayor
- Denis Coderre says police union will pay for mass sick day tactic
- Quebec aims to reform pension plans of municipal workers
Unions said Bill 3 would take away the rights of municipal workers to negotiate about their working conditions.
Shows of displeasure have included mass sick days and wearing flashy casual clothes instead of uniforms.
On Monday, hundreds of city workers in Montreal crashed their city hall, scattering papers and throwing water on councillors in protest.
Gatineau police union fears it can't compete for workers
Gatineau’s police union said their pension plan has helped them compete with lower salaries compared to Ottawa police officers, meaning the proposed changes would make it harder to hire new officers.
“Knowing that there was a law coming up like that, we’d rather have taken our salary raises, we’d compare and we’d be very close to Ottawa,” said Jean-Pierre Bussiere, head of la Fraternité des policiers de la Ville de Gatineau.
“Seems like our government, the provincial government, hands out one solution that they do bring out and impose to everybody.”
The provincial government said it’s open to negotiating with municipal workers over these pension changes, but doing so could take months.
Hearings on Bill 3 begin Thursday in Quebec City.
- On mobile? Click here to see Chloe Fedio's coverage of Bill 3 protesters in Gatineau.