Sask. not considering leaving CPP, premier says
CBC
Premier Scott Moe said Thursday the Saskatchewan government is not considering pulling out of the Canada Pension Plan, as Alberta has threatened to do.
"From Saskatchewan's perspective, we've been happy and I think the CPP has provided a great value not only to all Canadians but to Saskatchewan residents. We have had no discussions nor are we planning to have any discussions on pulling out."
The Alberta government has launched an advertising campaign discussing the possibility of leaving the pension plan.
The potential move has prompted federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland to call a meeting with provincial finance ministers on Friday.
"The CPP has been the bedrock of a secure and dignified retirement," Freeland said at a news conference. "I have heard the concerns of many Canadians, including many Albertans."
On Thursday, Alberta Finance Minister Nate Horner tabled legislation that lays the groundwork for an Alberta pension plan.
"I want to make clear that we want to hear everyone out," Horner said hours before the legislation was tabled.
In question period on Thursday morning in Regina, Opposition NDP Leader Carla Beck asked Moe what the government's intentions were.
"Next door in Alberta, the UCP seems hellbent on dragging Alberta out of the CPP and this government has floated the idea before. Will the premier commit to keeping Saskatchewan in the CPP so that Saskatchewan people can count on this cost-of-living security?"
Moe did not answer multiple questions posed by Beck and finance critic Trent Wotherspoon, but Finance Minister Donna Harpauer did.
"We do understand the value of the CPP to people in our province and we will be watching very closely what Alberta is doing. Keeping in mind the process for them to apply to be removed from CPP will be years and years in the making," Harpauer said.
She said Alberta would hold a referendum first and that a division of funds would be in dispute.
Harpauer said she spoke with Horner on Wednesday evening and that Alberta's decision would affect Saskatchewan.
"We do not see this as pressing and urgent today. What we need to have a discussion with the federal government [about] is the inequity and division that they are creating with the removal of the carbon tax in one area of Canada for heating fuel and not for the rest of Canadians."
A suspended Moncton structural engineer faces more lawsuits alleging design flaws in buildings that require repair.
Sajjade Tugano has come a long way since he first set foot in Chibougamau, six hours north of Quebec City, in the depths of winter in November 2021.
A national mentor-based hockey organization that helps marginalized youth through the sport is paying tribute to one of its members and youngest coaches.
After months of asking the City of Saskatoon to do more to solve its homelessness crisis, advocate David Fineday took to the stand at city council Tuesday.
A community organization wants to breathe new life into a historic building in Regina.
Some Prince County residents are walking away with more answers after attending Tuesday night's public information session in Albany, P.E.I., on the Wejipek Wind Project.
After just a few months of using vape detectors in a couple of bathrooms, a B.C. high school principal says it's reduced vape use in those areas to basically zero.
Burlington MP Karina Gould gets boost from local young people after entering Liberal leadership race
A day after entering the Liberal leadership race, Burlington, Ont., MP and government House leader Karina Gould was cheered at a campaign launch party by local residents — including young people expressing hope the 37-year-old politician will represent their voices.
Anold Mulaisho was born intersex and wonders where they fit in, in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump's executive order for the United States to recognize only two sexes, male and female.
WARNING: This story contains references to suicide.
Subway service is down on Line 1 between Sheppard West and Lawrence West due to a broken power rail, the TTC said Wednesday morning.
A long-term care home in Toronto's Yorkville neighbourhood has cleared one more hurdle to add desperately needed beds to its property, a move that's been praised by housing advocates but opposed by locals concerned about the impact on the neighbourhood.
A Charlottetown resident is calling on the P.E.I. government to do more to protect homeowners after reading about a recent oil spill very similar to one on his Montague property 20 years ago, which he says ruined him financially.
WARNING: This story includes details of abuse.
Two years after Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly declared she was taking the unprecedented step of moving to confiscate millions of dollars from a sanctioned Russian oligarch with assets in Canada, the government has not actually begun the court process to forfeit the money, let alone to hand it over to Ukrainian reconstruction — and it may never happen.
Alberta business and oilpatch leaders are returning home from Washington this week after the U.S. presidential inauguration festivities — and gritting their teeth after a roller-coaster of emotions.
Youth workers in Toronto's Jane and Finch area are flipping the script on negative stereotypes about their communities with a new fundraising campaign that offers anti-bias training in exchange for donations to bolster their programming.
In a sudden move that came late Tuesday evening, city officials rolled out cots and temporarily opened a warm building in east London as frigid temperatures continued.