Vote on Alberta pension plan ‘unlikely to be held in May’: Smith

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says the question of whether the province should get out of the Canada Pension Plan and create its own probably won’t be on the ballot for the general election in May.

At an unrelated news conference Wednesday, Smith said Albertans can count on a referendum before any decision is made, but Finance Minister Travis Toews is completing a report on the potential of an Alberta pension plan and will have more to say in the new year.

“It’s unlikely to be held in May … We want to make sure people understand the implications and the cost, and it’s unlikely that we’ll be able to roll that out that quickly, but I wanted to make sure people knew that if we did proceed with the decision, then it would be up to the people, as the Fair Deal Panel had recommended to us,” Smith said.

It comes after Smith told Postmedia columnist Rick Bell that if the government has time, it could hold the referendum in May. Smith argued that Albertans overcontribute to the Canada Pension Plan (CPP), and she’d like to see pension dollars stay in Alberta to better support seniors.

The UCP’s Fair Deal Panel, tasked with coming up with ways to improve Alberta’s place in the federation, recommended the government consider a provincial pension plan despite the fact that the majority of people surveyed as part of the panel’s June 2020 report didn’t support the idea.

Only 42 per cent of the people polled thought an Alberta Pension Plan would improve the province’s place in the federation a lot or somewhat.

Still, the report’s authors argued that Alberta’s young population is contributing more to the CPP than its older population is using, and pulling out could save money.

In June, 2020, former premier Jason Kenney said he was tasking the finance department with doing an analysis of the costs, benefits and potential structure of an Alberta pension plan. The government also commissioned a third-party report later that year, which was due to be submitted in early 2021.

In response to questions from Postmedia, Toews said in a statement the external report would be made public when the government’s analysis, which is being updated with ne