{"id":12,"date":"2023-05-25T02:14:28","date_gmt":"2023-05-25T02:14:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bellpensionersgroup.ca\/?page_id=12"},"modified":"2023-09-19T06:47:32","modified_gmt":"2023-09-19T10:47:32","slug":"message-des-presidents","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/bellpensionersgroup.ca\/fr\/presidents-message\/","title":{"rendered":"Message du pr\u00e9sident"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[et_pb_section fb_built=&#8221;1&#8243; _builder_version=&#8221;4.20.4&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; background_color=&#8221;rgba(96,96,96,0.14)&#8221; da_disable_devices=&#8221;off|off|off&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221; da_is_popup=&#8221;off&#8221; da_exit_intent=&#8221;off&#8221; da_has_close=&#8221;on&#8221; da_alt_close=&#8221;off&#8221; da_dark_close=&#8221;off&#8221; da_not_modal=&#8221;on&#8221; da_is_singular=&#8221;off&#8221; da_with_loader=&#8221;off&#8221; da_has_shadow=&#8221;on&#8221;][et_pb_row _builder_version=&#8221;4.20.4&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; background_color=&#8221;#FFFFFF&#8221; width=&#8221;100%&#8221; max_width=&#8221;1280px&#8221; custom_padding=&#8221;2vw|2vw|2vw|2vw|true|true&#8221; box_shadow_style=&#8221;preset1&#8243; box_shadow_vertical=&#8221;0px&#8221; box_shadow_blur=&#8221;6px&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221;][et_pb_column type=&#8221;4_4&#8243; _builder_version=&#8221;4.20.4&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221;][et_pb_text _builder_version=&#8221;4.22.1&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; header_font=&#8221;|800|||||||&#8221; header_text_color=&#8221;#002134&#8243; hover_enabled=&#8221;0&#8243; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221; sticky_enabled=&#8221;0&#8243;]<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">President&#8217;s Message<\/h2>\n<p><strong>BPG: the Voice of Bell Pensioners<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Bell Pensioners&#8217; Group (BPG) is a volunteer organization of Bell retirees and Bell<br \/>employees dedicated to the understanding and protection of one of your most important assets:<br \/>your Bell Canada pension and benefits promise. BPG also monitors the pension plans of T\u00e9l\u00e9bec<br \/>BCE and Bell Aliant.<\/p>\n<p>We have a membership of approximately 11,500. We encourage all Defined Benefit and<br \/>Defined Contribution retirees and active employees of the Bell companies to join our<br \/>organization. The potential pool of retirees is in excess of 30,000 and the potential pool of Bell<br \/>Canada employees is 73,000.<\/p>\n<p>We were created by Bell pensioners in 1994 as a federally regulated &#8216;not for profit&#8217; organization,<br \/>to represent the interests of Bell Canada pension plan members.<br \/>BPG is also a founding member of the Canadian Federation of Pensioners (CFP). CFP was<br \/>formed in 2005 to bring together retiree groups across Canada for the purpose of addressing<br \/>Defined Benefit pension plan issues from a pensioner point of view at both the provincial and<br \/>federal levels of government.<\/p>\n<p>We are fortunate to be retirees of Bell Canada. The pension plan is currently well funded and<br \/>Bell is on financially solid ground. We will continue to monitor Bell\u2019s financial situation and to<br \/>meet with them at least twice a year, but at this point of time, we do not see any apparent risks.<br \/>BPG focuses on responding to, and lobbying for specific changes to legislation, rules and<br \/>regulations. If there are any risks for us \u2013 it is in this area.<br \/>BPG will continue to respond to government consultations and continue to meet with key<br \/>government officials. At this point, we are specifically focusing on:<br \/><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Bankruptcy Legislation<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">The CFP with the support of its member organizations including BPG<br \/>was successful in having bill C-228 passed by both the parliament and the<br \/>senate and signed into law by the Governor General. We will continue to<br \/>monitor the situation given that the government has 4 years to implement<br \/>the legislation.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Defined Contribution Plans<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Now that Defined Contribution Plan members are officially welcomed to<br \/>join BPG, we will need to explore issues that affect their plans (e.g.<br \/>investment rules, withdrawal rules, etc&#8230;) to determine if we need to<br \/>lobby the regulators.<br \/><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Other Issues<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">The Federal Government and the Provinces may, from time to time,<br \/>change rules associated with pension plans including solvency ratios,<br \/>funding levels, etc&#8230;. BPG will stay vigilant to ensure changes aren\u2019t<br \/>detrimental to pensioners and their pension plans.<br \/><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Other initiatives<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">BPG recently introduced a group travel insurance program for members.<br \/>This program has been very popular. It has helped to increase our<br \/>visibility and increase our membership. Stay tuned as we explore other<br \/>benefits that are not related to pension issues.<\/p>\n<p>BPG hires experts such as actuaries, consultants and lawyers to assist in understanding and<br \/>properly addressing issues related to pensions and benefits.<br \/>One of our top priorities is keeping our membership informed on pension issues. We share with<br \/>our members (through meetings, newsletters and our website) information that is of special<br \/>importance to pensioners, such as the situation of Bell&#8217;s pension plan, pension reform or tips and<br \/>advice on benefits.<\/p>\n<p>Our voice is strong but it could be stronger. If you are not already a BPG member, I hope that<br \/>you will add your voice to the more than 11,000 colleagues who are already members. Please<br \/>take the time now to fill out the application form and make your voice count. A $20 annual<br \/>membership fee covers our administrative costs and the actions we may undertake on everyone&#8217;s<br \/>behalf.<\/p>\n<p>We look forward to representing our membership and are ready to help with any pension or<br \/>benefit problems you may have difficulty in resolving on your own.<\/p>\n<p>Warmest regards,<\/p>\n<p>Tony Lepine<br \/>President<\/p>\n<p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President&#8217;s Message BPG: the Voice of Bell Pensioners The Bell Pensioners&#8217; Group (BPG) is a volunteer organization of Bell retirees and Bellemployees dedicated to the understanding and protection of one [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"<!-- wp:divi\/placeholder \/-->","_et_gb_content_width":"","_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":"","_tec_slr_enabled":"","_tec_slr_layout":""},"difl_page_category":[],"class_list":["post-12","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"ticketed":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bellpensionersgroup.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bellpensionersgroup.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bellpensionersgroup.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bellpensionersgroup.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bellpensionersgroup.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bellpensionersgroup.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bellpensionersgroup.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"difl_page_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bellpensionersgroup.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/difl_page_category?post=12"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}