Alberta Premier Danielle Smith speaks to the media in Calgary, Monday, Sept. 18, 2023. Smith announced her government will consult with Albertans over the coming months with an eye to holding a referendum on whether to leave CPP and create a separate Alberta pension plan. Opposition finance critic Samir Kayande says as a last resort, an NDP government would cancel the plan at that late date, regardless of whether Albertans vote in favour of ditching the CPP in a referendum. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
EDMONTON – Alberta’s long road to quitting the Canada Pension Plan would run smack into the scheduled 2027 provincial election, with Opposition New Democrats promising to kill the idea if they win.
Opposition finance critic Samir Kayande says as a last resort, an NDP government would cancel the plan at that late date, regardless of whether Albertans vote in favour of ditching the CPP in a referendum.
Kayande says Albertans have already made their voices heard that they don’t want Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservative government touching Canada’s $575-billion retirement nest egg.
His comments come a day after Smith announced her government will consult with Albertans, with an eye to holding a referendum on whether to leave CPP and create a separate Alberta pension plan.
Smith’s government wants to take more than half the CPP fund with it, but analysts say that number is based on flawed mathematical assumptions.
They say even if it were accurate, Ottawa and other provinces wouldn’t agree to 12 per cent of Canada’s population exiting with 53 per cent of the CPP assets.
Leaving CPP requires three years’ notice, and the next Alberta election is set for May 31, 2027.
