An update on the Alberta Pension Plan has been made available by the Alberta Government. 

The province held five phone town halls across the province in November, over 76,000 Albertans attended the panels, and over 94,000 of them completed the online survey.

The first phase of the engagement is now complete, and the panel will now analyze what it has heard from Albertans so far.

“Albertans can rest assured that their voices have been heard and that’s why I tabled the Alberta Pension Protection Act, which provides Albertans with certainty that their pension contributions are safe and that we will not proceed with a provincial plan without their say through a referendum. This is a complex process and one that we do not take lightly,” stated Nate Horner, President of Treasury Board and Minister of Finance.

It was evident early on in this engagement phase that Albertans desired more specific information regarding the amount of asset transfer Alberta would be entitled to receive in the event of its withdrawal from the Canada Pension Plan.

Although the LifeWorks report used publicly accessible data to offer a realistic asset transfer value, federal government analysis is needed to determine a more accurate figure.

The federal finance minister has committed to asking the chief actuary of Canada to provide an opinion on Alberta’s share of the CPP assets. The government of Alberta is hoping that this work may be finished quickly so that people in the province have as much information as possible when they think about the potential of a new plan. In light of this, the panel has chosen to postpone planning more public engagement events until after the chief actuary of Canada has had a chance to publish their findings.  

“We are pleased with how many Albertans we have reached with our consultations to date. The LifeWorks report presents an opportunity worth exploring and Albertans have answered that call, but what we’ve heard loud and clear is that they want to hear how the federal government calculates the asset transfer number. We will start the next round of public meetings when we have more clarity on that number, but in the meantime, we encourage everyone to have a look at our workbook and provide feedback there,” stated Jim Dinning, chair of the Alberta Pension Plan Engagement Panel.

Throughout this entire process Alberta’s government committed to ensuring the most up-to-date information is provided to Albertans.

For more information, on the Alberta Pension Plan click here.  

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