Benefits Overview

As employees of Concordia University, our benefits are set out in collective agreements, individual employee contracts, and human resources policies. When we retire from active employment, pension payments begin and many of our benefits continue. These may include group health insurance and basic life insurance, access to Concordia’s health services, and continuing participation in the life of the University via tuition waivers and access to its libraries and a range of social and academic community events.

The year 2025 marks the introduction of a modified group health insurance Plan (GIP) that embodies important changes developed and negotiated by the Employee Benefits Committee of the Board (CEBC) over a six-year period. A brief review will help to put the current plan in context.

Recent History

In autumn 2018, motivated primarily by an alarming increase in costs, especially the prices of prescription drugs, the CEBC created a working group comprised of its own internal members and a team of external consultants to consider the existing benefits Plan which was then, and still is, administered by SunLife. Two years later, the Benefits Sustainability Forum (BSF) was established to include representatives of Concordia’s labour unions and associations, as well as of CUPA/ARUC, in the comprehensive review and evaluation of the Plan and to propose changes to the CEBC.

The following three-point set of principles was identified to guide the process:

Financial security, equity and universality
Affordability and sustainability
Value and flexibility

With so many constituencies and the comprehensive scope of BSF’s declared goals, the process was slow-going. In autumn 2023, the CUPA/ARUC representative on the CEBC reported in our newsletter that “… given the current high inflation rate and the financial problems of the University, it is essential that at least some changes be made to the current Plan soon to mitigate the rapidly increasing costs.”

It happened that 2024 brought additional shocks compounding these financial pressures. The cost of claims against the plan increased sharply and new policies of the provincial government quickly cut into Concordia’s revenues. Notably, the budgets of Quebec universities are sensitive to policies of the Ministry of Education which, in 2024, introduced a cap on international enrolments and sharply increased tuition fees for Canadian out-of-province students. Together, these two initiatives reduced the number of incoming students. Concordia reported that out-of-province enrolments in fall 2024 were 28% lower than the previous year and undergraduate international student enrolments had dropped by 11%.

Modifications to the health insurance Plan were finally approved by all parties and adopted by the Board of Governors on June 20, 2024 for implementation on January 1, 2025. Despite a significant number of transactional difficulties encountered during the first few months of 2025, the revised Plan is now in effect with a modernized structure including a health care spending account (HCSA) that allows more flexibility for users. Components of the Plan are (will be!) outlined below.

Governance and Administration

Retirees from Concordia University can access a broad complement of benefits that provides the foundation for a good quality of life after retirement. Chief among these benefits is the defined-benefits pension plan, which is the responsibility of the Pension Committee.

The Employee Benefits Committee (CEBC) reviews and monitors benefits for both active and non-active employees. This committee has 13 members who meet at least twice a year to consider benefits provided under the group insurance plan as well as other benefits, and to make recommendations to the Board of Governors on modifications to these plans. Recommendations from the Pension Committee for changes to the pension plan must also be ratified by the CEBC before being submitted to the Board of Governors.

Retirees of the university have one voting member on this committee and an alternate member who acquires voting rights in the absence of the regular member. Both are elected by the non-active members of the pension plan at a general meeting and then must be appointed by the Board of Governors. Terms are normally two years.

The primary focus of CUPA/ARUC’s representatives on the Employee Benefits Committee is the group health insurance plan. Their mandate is to safeguard retirees’ benefits, to inform members on relevant decisions, and to work closely with the university employees and officers responsible for retiree benefits to ensure that members can easily obtain responses to their enquires.

Our “defined benefits” Pension Plan guarantees retirees receive a fixed pension amount until the end of our lives. No further financial contribution is required on our part to secure it; indeed, we benefit from cost-of-living adjustments (calculated according to formulae that take inflation indices and investment performance into account) intended to maintain the value of our pensions in inflationary times.

The Group Insurance Plan in 2025

The group health insurance plan (GIP) is different from the Pension Plan in a few ways. Importantly, it provides health-related benefits to both retirees and active employees. The CEBC’s goals of equitable and universal access are reflected in the fact that, with few exceptions, retirees and employees have access to the same benefits.

The retired user’s price of the GIP, the “premium”, is deducted monthly from our Concordia pensions. Pensioners have seen a 200% increase in our premiums since the changes to the Plan were introduced in January 2025. It should be noted, however, that for most users the new health care spending account offsets the higher premium.

Another difference is that, unlike the Pension, our group health insurance coverage can change; our benefits may be changed or reduced, and our costs may increase. Concordia has shown genuine commitment to providing for its employees and retirees and we can be confident the University will protect our benefits as well as possible. However, budget constraints inevitably force difficult choices respecting allocations among multiple constituencies and services.

For many people, healthcare costs increase with age. Concordia retirees can rely on our extensive insurance plan to help underwrite those expenses. To protect our interests, active representation by retirees on University decision-making bodies is critical. CUPA/ARUC is dedicated to advocating for Concordia’s retirees through direct and substantive involvement with the University’s governing bodies.

The Concordia Employee Benefits Committee is committed to ensuring the sustainability of the GIP, and the purpose of CUPA/ARUC membership on the CEBC is to ensure that the Committee’s decisions take retirees’ needs into account. It follows that our representatives are available to help retirees to understand and navigate the insurance platform effectively, and to optimize their benefits. We can be reached at cuparuc@concordia.ca.