Val Alcock presented her report on her activities during the previous year. She announced that anew logo was selected for ACER-CART. Val was to meet with Minister Ken Dryden on June 7 and report later to Directors on the outcome of the meeting. Also attending this meeting will be Bob McCarthy, President of the Congress of Union Retirees of Canada; Mr. Lirette, president of the Assemblée des aînées et aînés francophones du Canada; and Jean-Guy Soulière, Executive Director of the Federal Superannuates National Association.

The Directors named Val Alcock as the ACER-CART official representative to the Congress of National Seniors Organization (CNSO) for 2005-06.

The Chairpersons of the three major committees each gave a report on the activities and achievements:

Website - the basic website format has been completed, and efforts continue to ensure its usefulness and freshness. An "Articles" section was added. A major effort has been to maintain updated names and addresses of Presidents and ACER-CART Directors listed in the website's "Members" section. Another was to seek and receive the upcoming AGM/BGM dates and locations of the member organizations for listing in the "Meetings" section.

One disappointment was the lack of response by member organization Directors/Presidents in regularly submitting a short summary of their organization's activities/issues etc. for the "What's New" section. The section was, however, expanded to include some letters/reports from ACER-CART.

Media Releases - Mainly the prerogative of the President and Executive Director, no press releases were used in the previous year, though many letters were sent by them on several issues.

Committee motions presented and carried were:

THAT a more systematic process by ACER-CART be followed that would aid in keeping website information current, and, to this end THAT a person be designated in each member association (Director, webmaster, or other) to inform ACER-CART of any changes in names and addresses of the organization, the President, the ACER-CART Director, etc.

THAT Regional Directors assist in contacting the Directors of their regions to encourage reporting of activities or events which are of general interest.

THAT all general communications of ACER-CART (i.e. agendas, minutes, AGM followup, quarterly reports, President’s communiqués, etc) be sent electronically, with hard copy only to those Directors or members who do not have e-mail, or who make a specific request for printed copy.

George Little reported that in Pierre Drouin next quarterly report there will be a survey/questionnaire for Directors to fill. The survey’s aim is to have an overall picture of the cost and implication of extended care in each province. Members were asked to complete the survey quickly and return to Pierre.

Example of questions: - cost of keeping a senior in a nursing home; - what the daily rate is based on; - economic impact on non-institutionalized spouse; - cost of medication; - arrangement in your province for subsidizing on in-house care provider; - provincial compensation in your area to loss of income of care giving partner who had to give up work; - choice of nursing home; - extent of provincial financing for subsidy from the provincial hospital insurance, etc. At the end of the survey, there will be a general issues section for comments, and information on the waiting period to get into a nursing home.

George thanked the group for allowing him the privilege of serving on the Executive for the last two years.

Pat Brady noted that in Pierre Drouin’s quarterly reports of January 6 and March 15, there was a summary of the policies that were passed and the action that was taken. The Executive recommended that a strong approach be taken on Income and Security Policy of the organization and on selected issues including two from the Health Policy and four from Income Security , from last year.

THAT ACER-CART solicit the position of the federal party leaders and party organizations in respect to the following policies: THAT ACER-CART strongly urge the Government of Canada to establish a National Prescription Drug Agency under the Health Care Act to:

(a) control costs, evaluate new and existing drugs, ensure quality, safety and cost effectiveness of all prescription drugs;

(b) encourage the provinces and territories to adopt the national formulary of prescription drugs including adverse drug reactions and contain costs;

(c) review the Canada patent law as related to prescription drugs; and

(d) use the Catastrophic Drug Transfer to offset the cost of provincial and territorial drug plans to reduce disparities in coverage across Canada.

THAT ACER-CART recommend to the Government of Canada that increased funding be provided for direct compensation for care givers and for adjustments to CPP and EI to relieve the pressure on personnel who must discontinue regular jobs to care for sick family members.

THAT “Household Income Splitting” for tax purposes be implemented immediately.

THAT minimum withdrawal rates from RRIFs be lowered.

THAT defined benefits pension plan limits be increased to $3,000 effective immediately

THAT the age at which RRSPs must be annuitized or converted to a Registered Retirement Income Fund (RRIF) be raised to age 73 by January 1, 2006. THAT ACER-CART lobby the Federal Government to have OAS (Old Age Security) income treated as tax free income.

THAT ACER-CART request the Federal Government to allow 100% of all medical expenses not covered by Medicare or other insurance to be claimed.

THAT the expenses referred to in motion 6.2.3.3 be considered as a tax deduction instead of as a non-refundable tax credit.

THAT ACER-CART request the Federal Government to allow 100% of all charitable donations to be claimed.

THAT the expenses referred to in motion 6.2.3.5 be considered as a tax deduction instead of as a non-refundable tax credit.

THAT ACER-CART lobby the Federal Government to increase the $1,000 pension income deduction to $2,500.

THAT ACER-CART lobby the Federal Government to remove the CPP/QPP penalty on the years prior to age 55 imposed on those who retire prior to age 55

THAT ACER-CART request the Federal Government to remove the GST on transportation fuels.

The following two concepts were referred to the pension and retirement income committee for study and report to the 2006 AGM:

A. Joint RRSP for couples

B. Flat tax rate for de-registering a RRSP

Directors provided written reports on the major concerns of the provincial organization. Considerable discussion occurred during this useful opportunity to make comparisons and seek advice on issues of mutual interest.

Pierre Drouin was asked to prepare a survey/questionnaire for Health plans. He will contact Johnson Inc. about their national survey on the subject.

Société des enseignantes et des enseignants retraités francophones du Nouveau-Brunswick presented the following policy change:

The 2005-06 executive officers were elected by acclamation.

The following were set as priorities for ACER-CART in 2005-2006:

-continue to work with CNSO for the development of the Seniors Secretariat
-continue to enhance the visibility of ACER-CART at the national level
-Microsoft project
-CNSO – Income security and communications
-CSP – Special projects:
-Computer training for seniors – Arnold Hull
-Post retirement workshop – RTO Superannuate
-continuing to push for the implementation of our health and pension/retirement policies

The budget requirements for 2005-06 were presented and reviewed. No fee increase was
recommended.

A motion from RTAM requested:

a) that ACER-CART include in the expense category support for the PATC (Pan-
African Teachers’ Center) Book Development Project in the 2005-2006 budget
b) THAT an amount equal to 1% of the annual ACER-CART budget be allocated to
the PATC Book Development Project through the Canadian Teachers’
Federation (CTF)
c) THAT other retired teacher organizations be encouraged to supplement this
allocation with regular donations from their organizations

The delegates decided to postpone further discussion of this issue to the 2006 AGM.

The meeting ended on June 4, 2005 at 3:30 p.m. The next AGM is scheduled for June 2-3, 2006.