Alberta wants to leave the CPP: Can they do that and what does it mean for the rest of Canada?

financialpost.com:

A new LifeWorks study commissioned by the Alberta government says the province could be entitled to take $334 billion — more than half of assets in the Canada Pension Plan — were it to exit the national plan entirely and start its own fund. The figure has raised eyebrows in pension circles and big questions across the rest of the country: Can Alberta really walk off with half the CPP? And what happens to everyone else if they do? The Financial Post’s Ian Vandaelle breaks down what you need to know about the issue.

In short, yes, but we haven’t been down this road before: no province has left the Canada Pension Plan since its inception in 1966. Quebec never joined up with that pact, mind you, so it’s an outlier that has had its own provincial pension plan from the get-go. From there, life gets more complicated: Under the Canada Pension Plan Act, a province would need to give three years notice to the feds that it intends to exit CPP, enact its own legislation within one year of that notice, and prove its own made-at-home pension plan was roughly comparable in terms of providing that safety net. So, not a swift process. And in Alberta’s case, it’s by no means a done deal. The provincial government plans to consult with residents into early next year to gauge their appetite to leave the plan, with the results determining if a referendum is held sometime in 2024.

It boils down to a few things, all of which go hand-in-hand: demographics, economics and a lingering sense of Western alienation. On the first point, Alberta skews young — 66.2 per cent of those living in the province are between the ages of 15 and 64, according to the 2021 census, putting it above the national average of 64.8 per cent. That means more contributors