Alberta premier doesn't commit to face-to-face meetings on exiting CPP

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith won't say what happened to her government's promise to hold face-to-face meetings with citizens in December on quitting the Canada Pension Plan.

But Smith says thousands did get their say or tuned in to five recent telephone town hall consultations.

"We've had an extraordinary number of people participate," Smith told the provincial legislature in question period Thursday.

"I believe we're up to about 75,000, nearly 100,000 people who participated online.

"We're going to ask the chair of that committee, Jim Dinning, to give us his impressions of where we find ourselves."

NDP Leader Rachel Notley noted it was Dinning himself who promised in mid-October there would be in-person meetings in December.

Notley said Smith's answer "sounds like a hedge to me and yet another broken promise."

Dinning's panel concluded its fifth and final telephone town hall Wednesday night without updating the December meetings.

Almost six weeks earlier, Dinning announced at the first telephone town hall on Oct. 16 that the next step would be in-person town hall sessions in December, characterizing such meetings as integral to drilling down to the key points of concern.

"The [telephone] town hall meetings give us a chance to hear what are the issues," Dinning said at the time.

"By then, we'll have a better idea of what are some of the concerns that folks have, and we can begin to address those in a more focused fashion in the town hall face-to-face sessions."

Dinning stated: "We'll be having meetings in December face to face."

On Wednesday, Dinning told callers, "We're going to reflect on what we've heard in these five town hall meetings and decide on next steps.

"You'll hear from us in the days ahead."