Senior organizations and individuals are speaking against the UCP's proposed Alberta Pension Plan.
NDP MLAs say seniors are bringing their concerns over a potential Alberta Pension Plan to their offices, highlighted at a news conference Thursday.
Marie Renaud, St. Albert NDP MLA said the most frequent issue her office hears about is concern for the future of the CPP. It's the same for Lori Sigurdson, Alberta NDP Critic for Seniors Issues. She said her office is fielding calls and emails from a range of Albertans anxious about their pensions.
"This is not Danielle Smith’s money, it is not the UCP’s money, this is your money," Sigurdson said.
Renault said a new UCP marketing campaign to 'sell' the Alberta Pension Plan lacks truth and transparency, "spending millions of Alberta taxpayers' dollars, and its only purpose is to advance Danielle Smith's 20-year campaign to remove Alberta from CPP."
It isn't only Opposition voices decrying the proposed move to remove Alberta from the national pension plan. Senior Kathy Williams called the move risky, adding she wants to have the strong, stable CPP there for her grandchildren. "This generation should not be the last to have a CPP," she said.
In a letter to the editor to Postmedia this week, Alberta chapters of CARP (Canadian Association of Retired Persons) and SUN (Seniors United Now) jointly pointed out what they see as flaws in the proposed Alberta Pension Plan.
"Let's spread the word about the pitfalls of the UCP plan for a provincial pension," said Doug Martin, president of CARP Calgary. In the letter, the senior-serving organizations call the move risky, impractical and, "an invitation to political interference. Pensions are for the people who paid into them, not for politicians to use as they see fit.
Premier Danielle Smith’s suggestion that Alberta should consider abandoning the CPP and gamble our pensions on a ‘go-it-alone’ scheme will weaken the retirement system for all Canadians. Everyone in this province should oppose it loudly," he said.
Octogenarian Betty Mackey said she has been a beneficiary of the CPP for the past 15 years and relies on it to help her “live independently and have the kind of life that seniors who put 50 years into the workforce should have in terms of being able to enjoy all of the aspects of living comfortably.”
A government $7.5 million public awareness campaign is set to run until spring 2024, when a public engagement panel on the proposed pension will begin.
