Your pension is none of Trudeau’s business

Your pension is none of Trudeau’s business

Last week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took his anti-Alberta condescension to a whole new level, lecturing the government of Alberta for consulting on the creation of an Alberta Pension Plan.

Fresh off a Supreme Court ruling detailing how his government violated the Constitution of Canada with regard to its C-69 “no more pipelines” law, the Prime Minister seems determined to repeat his mistake.

In his open letter to the Premier, Trudeau stated he has instructed his cabinet and officials to do “everything possible” to ensure the CPP remains intact.

As a member of the Alberta’s Fair Deal Panel, which recommended the adoption of an Alberta Pension Plan back in 2020, I can tell you for a fact that your pension decisions are none of the Prime Minister’s business. Section 94A of the Constitution gives provinces the final say over legislation concerning pensions.

Trudeau knows this. He is a proud Quebecer. He knows that his home province started its own pension plan as an alternative to the Canada Pension Plan back in 1966. He also knows that, by law, an Alberta Pension Plan would have to offer comparable set of benefits to the CPP, and that both the CPP and APP would need to be portable across the country.

He just doesn’t care.

Instead of acknowledging Alberta’s concerns with regard to recent CPP contribution hikes, or any of the many other ways the federal government stacks the deck against our province, he would rather lecture and threaten Albertans. It’s a smoke screen, meant to divide and infuriate people.

Of all the nonsense included in Trudeau’s open letter, I found one statement particularly galling: "Withdrawing Albertans from the Canada Pension Plan would expose millions of Canadians to greater volatility and would deny them the certainty and stability that has benefited generations.”

The fact is the CPP, through its own changing investment decisions, is doing far more to expose Canadians to unnecessary volatility.

Spoiler alert: Those who believe that the Canada Pension Plan simply invests in companies that offer the best financial return are in for a rude awakening.

When it comes to issues like climate change or social justice, the CPP has gone full woke activist, openly bragging about its efforts to interfere in markets and push a variety of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives.

One of the ways they do this is through proxy voting used to pressure the companies it invests with. According to the CPP’s Proxy Voting Principles and Guidelines, the CPP will “monitor ESG factors and actively engage with companies to promote improved management of ESG.”

If that sounds familiar, it should. Trudeau’s federal government has announced a plan to impose mandatory ESG reporting on all publicly traded companies.

The CPP’s policy goes a step further, making it clear that in some cases, the CPP will pursue investments that don’t offer the best short term return to you, the investor, in favour of long term ESG goals.

Despite the fact that Canada’s population is aging, inflation is devaluing the standard of living for millions of seniors on fixed incomes, the CPP is increasing its stake in so-called “green” companies. According to its 2023 report, the CPP has currently invested $79 billion (nearly 14% of the $570 billion fund) in such companies, with a plan to increase this to $130 billion by 2030.

As a member of the Fair Deal Panel, I can tell you that we heard concerns from thousands of Albertans regarding the federal government’s willingness ignore jurisdictional boundaries, to bend any law, and to torque any process to pursue its goals.

One of the key concerns I have heard about the idea of an APP is that it would just end up being used as a funding vehicle for the government of the day’s latest economic diversification schemes.

That’s why we noted, in our final report, that,” Any fund manager(s) selected for the APP fund would be guided by a clear governance and accountability mandate to deter political interference.” As the debate over the creation of an Alberta Pension Plan continues, it is incumbent on the government to outline the details of this mandate.

At the end of the day, an APP can’t just be CPP West. It has to be better.

Your pension is none of Trudeau’s business. It shouldn’t be Danielle Smith or Rachel Notley’s business either.