"Lies and spin": Some Albertans are livid about proposed pension plan | Daily Hive

Government of Alberta/Flickr

Backlash to the proposed Alberta Pension Plan that would see the province leave the current Canada Pension Plan (CPP) in favour of its own is mounting online after the province touted the benefits of leaving the plan in a post.

Alberta is looking to leave the CPP and establish its own provincial pension fund after a long-awaited report claimed the province would be entitled to a $334 billion asset transfer if it left in 2027 — over half of the CPP’s entire assets.

The provincial government has been flirting with the idea of leaving the CPP for years now, arguing that the province’s high employment rates, younger population, and higher pensionable earnings have left it putting more into the CPP than it’s been getting out.

However, the move has been criticized both in Alberta and across the country, and the positive effects of a new plan have been questioned. Economist Trevor Tombe found only a “modest scope” for possible changes to benefit and contribution levels.

It would also greatly diminish the retirement safety net for the rest of Canada (except Québec, which has its own pension plan) and could result in higher pension contributions for non-Albertans.

The comments left under an Alberta Government post to X, advertising the proposed plan, were heated, to say the least.

An Alberta Pension Plan could save Albertans billions of dollars each year—with lower contribution rates, better benefits and stronger security for Albertans now and in the future. Learn more and have your say about a potential APP. It’s your pension, it’s your choice.

— Alberta Government (@YourAlberta) November 3, 2023

You might also like:

You guys also got suckered out of $1.5 billion for an imaginary pipeline to nowhere.

Entrusting you with pension money "could" be suicide.

— Geoffrey John (@dirtsleep) November 3, 2023

I love paying less for more. That has always been a sustainable model.

— Shelly Robichaud (@robshello) November 3, 2023

“…Albertans pay the same or lower contribution rates & receive the same or better benefits”

And IF that doesn’t happen @YourAlberta ? Can Albertans sue the prov govt for selling us snake oil?

— Warren Hiller (@warrenhiller) November 3, 2023

Please stop this expensive fantasy

— Newcomer (@Newcomer0881) November 3, 2023

Criticism of the proposed plan has been seen online and in different corners of the province. During a telephone town hall meeting in Northern Alberta, residents posed many questions to the moderators about how a proposed plan would work, but there were also plenty of critiques, including from one man who didn’t understand why the government wasn’t speaking to Albertans face-to-face.

“I have a concern that this is only a telephone town hall and not a live conversation. I have the utmost respect for Minister Dinning and his political career, and it seems to me that if this group is really seeking the input from people, we would have live town halls,” said Fred, who is identified as being from Casper, Alberta.

“Why not a live town hall? Instead, we have our premier, who stated a falsehood that 300,000 people were consulted in person in the previous consultation. We know that’s not true.”

A survey is open until December 10 for Albertans looking to voice their opinions about the proposed APP. However, that has also been criticized for being “unbalanced and incomplete,” favouring the notion that Alberta should go forward with its retirement plan.

During a federal-provincial-territorial meeting of finance ministers earlier today, Alberta Treasury and Finance Minister Nate Horner reassured Canadians that a potential Alberta Pension Plan “will not leave our fellow Canadians without a stable pension and its associated benefits.”

“For the past several weeks, Alberta has been having an open discussion about the possibility of establishing an Alberta Pension Plan that will benefit our seniors and workers. This will only happen if Albertans vote to do so in a referendum,” he stated.

“To help frame the conversation, we commissioned a report by an independent, expert actuary, Lifeworks (formerly known as Morneau-Shepell). The report provides details as to the asset transfer value that Alberta could expect to receive according to the withdrawal formula that was voluntarily agreed to by all Canadian provinces decades ago when the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) was established, and which was once again updated, with agreement by the provinces, in 1997.”

Daily Hive reached out to Minister Horner’s office but has not yet received a response.

With files from Quinn Henderson