Majority of Albertans rejected provincial pension in 2023 survey

CBC

8 hours ago

Nearly two-thirds of respondents to the Alberta government's pension engagement survey did not want to dump the Canada Pension Plan and switch to a plan run by the province.
Numbers provided by the government showed 63 per cent of people who responded to the 2023 were opposed to an Alberta pension, 10 per cent were in favour and 12 per cent were undecided or unsure.
The remaining 15 per cent was made up of people whose responses were incomplete, or contained questions or suggestions for "other alternatives."
The survey results were released to the Edmonton Journal this week after a 21-month battle. The newspaper reported that it asked the province for the responses on multiple occasions only to be met with refusal or documents full of redactions.
The data was finally posted to the government's open data site this week after the privacy and information commissioner became involved.
In its response, the government cited two 2025 polls which suggested public opinion was shifting in favour of a provincial pension plan.
"While recent surveys on an APP show public opinion may be shifting, we will continue to engage with Albertans on this topic through the Alberta Next panel," Marisa Breeze, press secretary to finance minister Nate Horner, wrote.
"The Alberta Pension Protection Act guarantees we won't replace the CPP with an Alberta Pension Plan unless Albertans approve it in a referendum."
Responses in the document called the idea "reckless" and the survey "a farce."
"I do not support this idea. I will move out of Alberta if this happens," one respondent said. "I am Canadian first and fully support the Canada Pension Plan.
"Withdrawal from the CPP would be a horrendous miscalculation that will impact our province for generations to come," said another.
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One respondent characterized the government's pension ambitions as "political posturing."
"Stop playing games with my retirement to spite the rest of the country.
Supporters of a provincial pension said they wanted Alberta to be independent from Ottawa.
"Alberta has paid dearly since Confederation," one respondent wrote. "We deserve independence financially."
Edmonton-Decore MLA Sharif Haji, the NDP opposition critic for affordability and utilities, said the results prove that Albertans do not want a provincial pension. He criticized the government for trying to hide the survey answers.
"It took close to two years," Haji said. "What it tells me is that they never wanted to share because the result was not the one that they wanted."
Haji said an Alberta pension plan is part of Premier Danielle Smith's separation agenda, which includes the push for an Alberta provincial police service.
In 2023, the province released a report from an independent third party called Lifeworks, that claimed Alberta would be entitled to 53 per cent or $344 billion of the CPP if it withdrew from the national plan in 2027.
But Canada's chief actuary determined late last year that the amount was between 20 and 25 per cent of the $575 billion plan.
Smith has said Albertans would have to approve an exit from the CPP via an referendum before her government made any move.
An engagement panel led by former provincial treasurer Jim Dinning held town halls on the pension issue in the fall of 2023.