Wednesday, July 5, 2006 · Page 5 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Wrestling Club says thanks I would like to express my extreme appreciation to all those people who supported our Wrestling Club at our first annual golf tournament held Sat. June 24 at Belleview Golf Course. In particular I would like to thank our parents group who met and planned the event and put together a fabulous meal at St. George Hall in Essex. We also greatly appreciate the tremendous community support from our sponsors. Lastly, thanks to our club coaches Brad Hotchkiss, James Pernal and Jason O'Neil who spent a great deal of time planning the event and making it successful. William (Moe) L. Hogarth Essex County Wrestling Club New OMERS legislation raises concerns for CAO BY DANIEL SCHWAB A new Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System Act that will introduce supplemental benefits for emergency services personnel after retirement has the town's chief administrative officer expecting a significant future impact on municipal taxpayers. "Any growth of benefits (for police) costs our local taxpayers money because we fund the plan," Wayne Miller said. "Overall, I'm not overjoyed at the Act being passed." The new legislation, which came into effect June 30, introduces a supplemental plan for police, firefighters and paramedics. Within 24 months, OMERS is required to set up a plan that provides benefits that aren't currently offered in the primary plan. "Our cost of paying into the pension plan for police will go up," Miller said. "Whether it will be too much, I don't know. We won't know for a couple years until everything gets negotiated but I know it will be something." At the end of 2005, OMERS' net investment assets were worth $41.6 billion. Although there are approximately 364,000 OMERS clients in Ontario, Miller said there are only about 20 pensioners in Essex under the OMERS plan. "Other than for police, the Act isn't really going to make any difference for anybody else," he said. The Act also changes the governance structure of the OMERS plan by transferring final decision-making powers from the provincial government to the new sponsors corporation board. During the first year of the new act, the province will appoint 14 board members to the sponsors corporation with an equal number of representatives coming from employers and plan members. The board will make all decisions on plan benefits, design and contribution rates. Formerly, the province had to approve all final decisions. After the corporate bylaws are drafted, the sponsor groups themselves will appoint members. The province will "essentially have no role" in the plan after that point in time, said Patricia Trott, OMERS manager of corporate communications. "It means that we're governed by representatives of people who actually pay into the plan as opposed to having the government make the final decisions," she said. "It puts OMERS on par with other major Ontario public sector pension plans, which are governed by their sponsors." Trott said current benefits, pension service levels and investments won't change and will continue to be overseen by the administration corporation board. She said the sponsors corporation board members will be provincially appointed "any time soon" and negotiations with OMERS members will begin shortly thereafter. Donna Hunter, treasurer for the Town of Essex, said if there is a significant impact on municipal taxpayers, funding will be looked at from a variety of sources, not necessarily all of which will be taxation. Property tax reassessments cancelled for 2006, 2007 Property tax reassessments by the Municipal Assessment Property Corporation will be cancelled for the next two years to allow for the implementation of recommendations made by the Ontario Ombudsman in a report released March 28. Ontario Minister of Finance Greg Sorbara made the announcement June 29. "Our aim is to continue to improve the property assessment system in Ontario while increasing transparency and accountability to the public," Sorbara said in a press release. The Ombudsman's report recommended improvements to MPAC's assessment methodology and appeal processes. In response, MPAC committed to implementing all of the recommendations by 2009. "This is good news for the residents of my riding," said Essex MPP Bruce Crozier. "By cancelling the next two reassessments, we are giving MPAC the time it needs to consult on and implement important changes to the system."