Alberta to debate Canada Pension Plan, says it deserves half if it leaves
Alberta’s premier fired the starter’s pistol Thursday for a provincewide consultation on whether to quit the Canada Pension Plan while releasing a report that estimates the province deserves more than half CPP’s assets.
The third-party report says Alberta should get $334 billion, or 53 per cent of the CPP, if it leaves the program in 2027 following the required three-year notification period.
Danielle Smith says the report found Albertans could save up to $5 billion in the first year of an Alberta Pension Plan.
Such a withdrawal could lead to “quite modest” contribution hikes in other provinces, the premier said, but the goal is to help Albertans and to send a message to Ottawa to stop taking for granted Alberta’s outsized, disproportionate contribution to the national purse.
“We want to have a better, constructive relationship with the rest of the country, and this begins the conversation,” Smith said in Calgary.
“I would hope people would develop an understanding of how difficult it is when you’ve got a small-population province like Alberta being asked to subsidize the rest of the country, as we do on so many programs.
“Many of these federal programs are stacked against us, and this one, I think, shows how dramatically stacked against Albertans it is.”
Smith said she personally favours a provincially run nest-egg fund and promised legislation this fall that “derisks” it.
“Your pension is safe. It will be the same or higher. Your premiums will be the same or lower,” said Smith.
If Alberta leaves, it would be the first province to quit the national retirement savings program. All provinces and territories are part of it except Quebec, which didn’t join after it was set up in 1965.
The report, compiled by pension analyst
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