February 10, 2005

Members of SSPO:

Congratulations!! Your expressed concerns about the Section 5.1 have not gone unnoticed by the Liberal Government of Ontario. They have recognized the flawed legislation that has jeopardized the well-being of our pension funds and have taken appropriate corrective action.

It was announced today that Stelco was notified by letter yesterday afternoon by James Arnett (Special Advisor on the Steel Industry to the Government of Ontario) that “upon emergence from CCAA, Stelco will not be entitled to the benefit of Section 5.1, of the Regulations under The Pension Benefits Act (Ontario)."

For further details CLICK HERE (Note: Adobe Format)

This comes as extremely encouraging news to your Steering Committee and was extremely gratifying inasmuch as Members of the Steering Committee, in the company of counsel Murray Gold, had attended a special meeting of the Hamilton Regional Niagara Liberal Caucus at 11:15am Wednesday. The purpose of that meeting was to make a presentation aimed at reinforcing the message that Stelco’s healthy financial prospects allow it to begin funding the solvency deficiencies in pension plans AND that Section 5.1 must be repealed, and replaced with an obligation on Stelco to fund its solvency deficiencies within a reasonable time frame.

At the conclusion of that meeting MPP’s in attendance were most appreciative of our concerns and supportive of our efforts. However, no indication was given that an announcement by the government regarding the future of 5.1 was pending.

To view that presentation please CLICK HERE (Note: Adobe Format)

Your steering committee and our counsel will whenever possible continue to engage in ongoing discussions with the Government, Stelco, Bidders, and other Stakeholders with respect to arriving a fair and reasonable plan to allow Stelco to fund its pension solvency deficiencies over a reasonable period of time.

In the meantime, it is import for our members to continue keeping the pressure on the Provincial Government to follow through on its announced commitment to rescind Section 5.1 for Stelco’s pension plans. It might also be quite appropriate to thank them for reaching the right conclusion, to withdraw a piece of flawed legislation that has unfortunately resulted in the deterioration of our pension funds.

NOTE: A FREE copy of the software required to view Acrobat PDF files is available for downloading by clicking here.