Alta. NDP urges Smith government to end efforts to pull out of CPP
EDMONTON — Alberta’s Opposition leader says Premier Danielle Smith’s government needs to end its fixation with pulling the province out of the Canada Pension Plan.
NDP Leader Rachel Notley says her party would not pursue an Alberta Pension Plan, which the United Conservative government has been studying for almost three years without resolution.
Notley says the idea does not make economic sense and is opposed by a majority of Albertans, adding the government needs to release its longpromised report into the pros and cons of Alberta going it alone on pensions.
“We are very concerned that this UCP government is sitting on a self-interested report that they are hiding from Albertans because they don’t want this to be an election issue, but they still plan to go ahead with it should they get elected,” Notley told reporters Thursday.
“If this UCP government is continuing to toy with this risky gamble to undermine the security of Albertans’ pensions, then they have an obligation to come clean on that.”
Alberta voters head to the polls May 29.
Smith’s office said work continues on a third-party analysis of an Alberta pension plan.
“While the initial analysis looks favourable, the Office of the Chief Actuary of Canada recently tabled updated asset figures for the CPP, and the third-party expert authoring the report requires additional time to update its findings,” spokeswoman Becca Polak said in a statement.
“When the expert informs us the final report is ready, it will be released publicly thereafter.”
Polak stressed the report would only be the first step and Albertans would have the final say.
“The government of Alberta will not replace the CPP with an Alberta Pension Plan unless Albertans first vote to do so in a provincewide referendum,” she said. “It’s Albertans’ pension — it must be Albertans’ choice.”
The report stems from a May 2020 Fair Deal panel report urging Alberta explore the idea as a way to help assert itself more within Confederation.
The panel reported that given Alberta’s young population, a separate pension plan could be a multibillion-dollar net benefit. The panel recommended the idea be explored; 42 per cent of the respondents in its survey thought it was a good idea.