Alberta pension report is premier’s attempt to “steal your pension” – NDP

According to Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley, however, the figures presented in the report appear to be too good to be true.

“Danielle Smith took the first step in her long-term plan to steal your pension,” said Notley. “She did it by releasing a report riddled with fake numbers, and she now plans to spend your money campaigning to convince you it’s a good idea. It’s not.”

According to the report, the current minimum contribution rate for the CPP is 9.54 per cent, but the proposed minimum for the APP would be 5.91 per cent. Alberta Finance Minister Nate Horner said this would amount to $5 billion in savings in the first year alone.

The number that has Notley worried, however, is the claim that Alberta would be entitled to receive $334 billion from the CPP if the transition were to be made, as that number reflects what the province contributed to the plan, minus benefits paid to Albertans over the last 57 years.

The $334 billion figure represents about 55 per cent of all funds currently in the CPP system. If Alberta is able to take that much money out, she said the entire system could be bankrupted if a larger province like Ontario were to follow Alberta’s lead.

“The claims made about potential premium savings are based on numbers that are just not real. Quite frankly, if they can extract that much money from the Canada Pension Plan, they will kill it all across the country, not just here,” said Notley.

The NDP leader pointed to Quebec as an example of what can happen when provinces do not participate in the CPP. Quebec never joined the program and Notley claims that Quebecers pay higher premiums for the same levels of seniors’ benefits.

For Alberta to leave the program after having been a part of it for decades, she believes that many headaches would be in store for the province. That is because Alberta would have to make new deals with individual provinces so seniors could continue to receive their benefits if they move out of province.

“This is a setup for years and years and years of fighting and economic insecurity and retirement insecurity for Canadians, and it’s going to undermine investment security and it’s going to undermine economic growth,” said Notley.

Lethbridge-West MLA Shannon Phillips, also a member of the Alberta NDP, weighed in on the issue in a Facebook post. She echoed Notley’s statements that the report from LifeWorks is “full of misleading numbers and pie-in-the-sky projections.”

“The claims are nonsense but the threats to remove Alberta from the CPP are very real. Your pension is not safe if the UCP continue this fool’s errand,” added Phillips.

Notley said a better alternative to leaving the CPP would be to supplement the existing program to ensure seniors can continue to received the benefits they need.

The United Conservative Party plans to introduce legislation related to the transition to a new pension plan in the fall 2023 legislature session. If it passes, a referendum would need to be held before the change could potentially be made.

Full details on the LifeWorks report is available on the new Alberta Pension Plan website.

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by David Opinko

Alberta pension report is premier’s attempt to “steal your pension” – NDP

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