For 25 years, Calgary taxpayers have been discreetly footing the bill for a secret, taxpayer-funded pension plan for the city’s top bureaucrats — one that city council has never formally approved.Known as the Overcap Pension Plan (OCPP), the program provides a third pension for the city’s highest-paid managers, including the Chiefs and Deputy Chiefs of the Calgary Police Service, Calgary Fire, and EMS.Currently, 126 employees qualify for this special third pension.“This pension plan has already cost taxpayers $137 million and leaves us with another $50 million in future liability,” John Williams, founder of the Alberta Public Affairs Corp., told the media on Tuesday.Williams pointed out the inequity of the plan, stating that while most Canadians have no pension or just one, Calgary’s top managers have access to three separate pensions.He also highlighted the high administrative costs — the OCPP costs $23,729 per member per year to administer — more than 100 times the cost per member for the city’s main pension plan ($151 per member) and the supplementary plan ($207 per member)..Overcap pensions for Calgary city staff sparks outcry from councillors.Williams pointed to an earlier investigation into the OCPP led by former mayor Rod Sykes, along with a group of former city employees, which revealed the plan — that formally commenced on Feb. 1, 2000 — was never actually voted on by council.Evidence was gathered through multiple Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, including an anonymous, unsolicited 181-page document outlining concerns from senior management about pension eligibility and the lack of formal rules before the plan’s inception.According to the investigation, the first four recipients of the plan received $2.2 million in benefits, while administration fees alone cost $1.2 million.By 2024, administration fees had skyrocketed to over $5 million, while benefits paid to recipients totalled less than $3 million.In total, the city has spent $49.7 million in benefits and $87.8 million in expenses.The plan has been administered by Aon, a private British-American risk-mitigation firm, meaning it is not subject to public access under FOI legislation. This has limited investigations and the public’s ability to see who receives the payments..On April 24, 2025, the city’s Chief Administrative Officer, David Duckworth, confirmed in a memo to Mayor Jyoti Gondek and council members that no previous council had ever approved the plan and that the city’s average annual cost for the OCPP over the last five years was $2.5 million.“The mayor didn’t respond. Council didn’t respond. Nobody demanded accountability. It’s absolutely outrageous,” Williams said.He questioned how members of council, such as Ward 7 Councillor Terry Wong — who is on the Pension and Governance Committee — did not expose the OCPP.“In the entire 25 years of the OCPP, the only councillor who's ever asked questions about this is Ward 13 Councillor Dan McLean.”McLean previously told the Western Standard he had been looking for answers on the OCPP since he joined council.“It’s unacceptable. It seems like a lot of people are expecting a pension that's probably undeserved, and payoffs that are undeserved,” McLean said..Calgary spends more on city worker pensions than ten other Canadian cities combined.Williams is calling for an immediate forensic audit of the OCPP, full public disclosure of all payments and administration costs, suspension of further payments until lawful approval is demonstrated, and the possibility of recovery of the $49.7 million already paid to recipients, as well as accountability from council members who failed to act on the Duckworth memo.He believes that with the lack of transparency shown by previous and current councils, this could be just the tip of the iceberg.“This is no longer just about a pension plan,” Williams said.“It’s about a city council that puts secrecy above transparency, insiders above taxpayers, and silence above accountability. The tail has got to stop wagging the dog.“Calgarians deserve better, and today the silence ends.”A spokesperson for the city responded to the Western Standard's request for comment saying, "the OCPP commenced on Feb. 1, 2000" and that "the plan is sponsored and administered by the city.""The OCPP is available to non-unionized, management staff above a certain pay level including the police and fire chief, and their deputies," the spokesperson continued. "From 2004 to Dec. 31, 2024, 100 employees have received either a monthly pension or a lump sum from the OCPP."They went on to say the costs of the OCPP "fluctuate based on the number of employees enrolled and their salaries."
