Question Period Note: Alberta Pension Plan Actuarial Report

The Alberta government released an actuarial report by LifeWorks on a potential Alberta pension plan that said Alberta could provide similar benefits to the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) with significant lower contribution rates (5.91% instead of 9.9% for the base plan) given demographics and a large asset transfer from the CPP ($334 billion or roughly 60% of the CPP fund).

The CPP is a national contributory pension plan and is portable across jobs and provinces, including in Quebec where the Quebec Pension Plan offers comparable benefits.

This encourages labour mobility across the country to help fulfill the needs of workers and employers and allows for one administrator, keeping administrative costs to a minimum.

A separate provincial pension plan would mean that Albertans would no longer enjoy the same economies of scale, pooling of risk, and investment advantage that is currently available through the CPP.

While there is a legislative framework in place for a province to leave the CPP, it has never been done before and the implications need to be carefully examined.

A key issue would be the calculation of the transfer of assets and liabilities, which needs to be fair for Albertans and other contributors to the CPP.

It will also be important to ensure that Albertans have all the relevant facts at their disposal before making this important decision.

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