'Doesn't add up': Southern Albertans weigh in on Alberta pension plan proposal

The panel gathering feedback on whether Alberta should quit the Canada Pension Plan heard renewed calls Tuesday for hard, negotiated numbers before the issue goes to a referendum.

The panel gathering feedback on whether Alberta should quit the Canada Pension Plan heard renewed calls Tuesday for hard, negotiated numbers before the issue goes to a referendum.

Panel chairman Jim Dinning also got an earful from one Albertan who called out the province's assertion it is entitled to leave the CPP with $334 billion -- more than half the fund's assets.

“Everyone here, including yourself, knows there's no world - none -- where Alberta gets half the Canada Pension Plan,” the caller, identified as Scott from Medicine Hat, told Dinning.

“It's based on insanity.

“What Alberta says we are entitled to is irrelevant,” he added.

“And if we don't have an actual number from the people who control the CPP of what we would get if we pull out, any referendum is based on a lie.”

Scott, and a number of other callers, called for hard, agreed-upon figures between Alberta and the feds before casting a ballot.