Alberta’s request to pull out of the Canada Pension Plan (CPP), and take $334 billion with it, has spurred the Parliamentary Budget Office to check the province’s claim on its portion of the money.
Premier Danielle Smith has said Alberta is entitled to 58 percent of CPP funds, currently coming in at roughly $570 billion.
Budget Officer Yves Giroux called the claim a matter of “particular significance” in a letter to cabinet that said he planned to scrutinize Alberta’s math. Mr. Giroux said he would calculate both contributions and withdrawals by CPP beneficiaries’ province of residence since 1966.
“I am requesting a custom tabulation that includes historical contributions to the Canada Pension Plan by province and territory, age, sex and year, and historical Canada Pension Plan benefits attributable to contributions in each province and territory by year,” Mr. Giroux said, as quoted by Blacklock’s Reporter.
His report is to be completed in 2024.
Ms. Smith released a report Aug. 1 claiming the province was entitled to 58 percent of the CPP’s funds.
The independent report commissioned by the Alberta government found that “due to Alberta’s younger population, higher pensionable earnings, and higher employment rates, contributions by Albertans to the CPP have historically exceeded the benefits paid to Albertans.”
Cabinet has rejected Alberta’s claim.
“I don’t buy the math,” Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault told reporters Oct. 18.
“I think the numbers are going to be crunched very carefully over the next year, quite frankly, if Alberta pulls out of the Canada Pension Plan,” Mr. Boissonnault said. “I think there are some problems with the math that got us to this point. The fact this is going to drag on for years is deeply destabilizing.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in an Oct. 18 letter to Ms. Smith that dividing the CPP would be detrimental to the nation.
“I have instructed my Cabinet and officials to take all necessary steps to ensure Albertans — and Canadians — are fully aware of the risks of your plan, and to do everything possible to ensure CPP remains intact,” he said in his open letter. “We will not stand by as anyone seeks to weaken pensions and reduce the retirement income of Canadians.”
Ms. Smith was quick to respond to the prime minister with her own letter saying it was “disingenuous and inappropriate” for Mr. Trudeau to “stoke fear in the hearts and minds of Canadian retirees on this issue.”
She said any attempt by the federal government to block Alberta’s exit from CPP would “be seen as an attack on the constitutional and legal rights of Alberta, and met with serious legal and political consequences.”
Ms. Smith’s United Conservative government has launched a provincial debate about the CPP issue. Albertans have been invited to review the findings of an independent third-party report on a potential Alberta Pension Plan.
The province is obtaining public engagement through online surveys and a panel that will obtain feedback from Albertans through a series of telephone town halls scheduled through Nov. 22.
Quebec is the only province not part of the national plan. It set up its own system when the CPP was created in the mid 1960s.
