'Impossible' for Alberta to exit with half of CPP assets, pension fund official says
The prospect of Alberta pulling out of the Canada Pension Plan in favour of its own pension scheme is back in the spotlight with an independent report — three years in the making — claiming the oil-rich province is entitled to more than half of the assets in the CPP Fund.
The total entitlement of up to $334 billion of the fund’s projected assets by 2027 is contained in a report byLifeworks, a unit of Telus Health, and is based on calculations of what the contributions of Albertans would be worth had the province never joined the national pension scheme, which was launched in the 1960s.
No official timeline has been given by the Alberta government that commissioned the report. However, the province’s finance minister, Nate Horner, said during a Sept. 21 news conference that pension protection legislation will be introduced this fall to ensure Albertans have a say on whether to leave the Canada Pension Plan and to ensure that an Alberta Pension Plan, if pursued, would offer the same or better benefits and the same or lower contribution rates as the existing CPP.
The Lifeworks report concludes that Alberta, as a province with a younger population with higher employment rates and well-paying jobs, has contributed more than its share to the fund and would therefore be responsible for and entitled to a greater portion of the returns.
A province that accounts for only 16% of total contributions can't legally or realistically be allowed to claim more than half the assets
But Michel Leduc, senior managing director and global head of public affairs at CPP Investments, the pension management organization that invests on behalf of the CPP Fund, said that while he respects the rights of provinces to create their own pension plans,
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