Provincial pension plan: Let’s go already

Over the past two weeks, the hot topic in media (besides Trudeau’s latest scandals) has been the subject of creating a provincial pension plan in Alberta.

So far, the debate has centered on financial details. On this front, the case of a provincial pension plan is clear. Albertans can immediately pay less in contributions and collect more in pension payments under a provincial plan.

The fact is, Alberta has a younger and higher skilled workforce than most of the rest of the country. Should Albertans vote to leave the Canadian Pension Plan, the CPP will need to increase its contributions to remain viable in the long term.

What has not been discussed, is that the move to a provincial pension plan is not solely a financial move. Rather, it is one of the best levers Alberta has to fight for a Fair Deal.

Albertans have spoken, loudly and frequently, about the way our province is treated in Confederation. For several generations, we have been forced to defend our livelihoods, our standard of living, and Provincial jurisdiction, from an overreaching Federal government.

To make matters worse, it seems we have to constantly spur our own provincial government to fight back.

This was supposed to change in 2019 when more than a million Albertans elected the UCP to stand up for Alberta.

Then, it was supposed to change when the government’s Fair Deal Panel ran the numbers and provided that facts outlining the extent to which Albertans are being short-changed.

Then, it was supposed to change when Albertans voted 62 percent in favor on a referendum to remove the equalization section from the Constitution.

Then, it was supposed to change when Alberta’s Legislature backed my motion to “deploy every legal, economic, and constitutional tool at the Province’s disposal” to win a fair deal for Alberta.

But nothing has changed. If anything, Ottawa’s overreach has only grown, while Alberta has yet to take any real action to fight back.

Political posturing may be par for the course in Alberta Legislature, where talking points are issued daily and pay cheques are guaranteed, but out in the real world the status quo is no longer acceptable.

That was the message I received most clearly as a member of the Government’s Fair Deal Panel. Through that process I personally heard from thousands of folks who are sick a tired of being ignored and even vilified for demanding fairness.

The Fair Deal Panel provided a long list of tools the Province could use to start fighting back. These included the creation of a provincial police force, opting out of new federal cost-shared programs, and the creation of a provincial pension plan.

Which brings us back to the provincial pension plan. Once again, the government of Alberta is consulting through an online survey. The seemingly endless delay will continue for months to come, prior to a referendum with no firm date set, followed by a multi-year process for converting CPP contributions to an APP.

While media and the political parties seem set on framing the debate along political lines, most of the concerns I’ve heard about a provincial pension plan are the same.

First of all, folks want to be assured that they will be guaranteed 100 per cent of their contributions to date, for obvious reasons. That money belongs to contributors, not governments.

Secondly, Albertans want to be sure that their contributions won’t be used to fund political fads in the name of economic diversification. Whether its funding expensive and unreliable solar farms, or questionable carbon capture schemes, folks don’t want politicians within a country mile of retirement investments.

If we’re going to create a new pension plan, at the very least we need ironclad legislation to insulate the plan’s management from political interference. Better yet, we should allow contributors to directly determine where their funds are to be invested. We all have different priorities, why should we all be forced to fund the same things?

Providing that government can adequately address both of these concerns, there is no reason to delay. If we want to show Ottawa that we mean business, we should hold a referendum on the creation of a provincial pension plan at our first opportunity.

Set a date, no later than the next municipal election, and in the meantime get all of the mechanisms in place.

No more delays. We’ve waited long enough.