Alberta pension engagement on hold until Ottawa provides CPP asset transfer amount
CBC
Consultations on a proposed Alberta Pension Plan are on hold until the province gets asset transfer figures from the Office of the Chief Actuary of Canada, pension engagement panel chair Jim Dinning said Friday.
"It is hard for Albertans to provide concrete perspectives when many variables concerning an Alberta plan depend upon the size of that asset transfer," Dinning said at a news conference in Edmonton with Finance Minister Nate Horner.
Dinning said uncertainty around the asset transfer amount has become a barrier to productive discussions so the panel wants to put additional consultation on hold.
Horner said he is pleased the engagement panel is giving the Office of the Chief Actuary time to release its own findings on the asset transfer amount.
The asset transfer number in the government-commissioned LifeWorks report has been a source of controversy since it was released to the public in September.
The report claims Alberta would be entitled to $334 billion — 53 per cent of the CPP's net assets — if it decided to leave the plan.
Dinning said Friday the LifeWorks figure initially struck him as a "gobsmacking number."
Economists, other provincial premiers and the CPP Investment Board are also skeptical. Experts have put the figure much lower.
Horner has gone back and forth on whether an APP would follow the CPP model — where all contributions are reinvested in the fund — or the model used in Quebec, where a portion of contributions are reinvested in the provincial economy. Critics worry some of that money could go toward politically-motivated projects.
Horner and Premier Danielle Smith have said they are open to hearing what the CPP thinks would be a more reasonable figure.
Federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has asked the chief actuary to perform the analysis.
Horner said he wrote to Freeland this week asking what will be asked of the chief actuary, and for details on the terms of reference.
"We know the chief actuary has better data than the publicly available data LifeWorks had to use," Horner said. "But as far as timeline, I think any speculation would be kind of challenging at this point."
Dinning's panel held five telephone town halls where they took 142 live questions and logged about 3,800 comments and questions.
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