Just because Albertans have overwhelmingly rejected the idea, don’t imagine for a moment Alberta’s United Conservative Party Government has lost interest in getting its hands on its citizens’ share of the Canada Pension Plan fund, whatever that may turn out to be. Lac Ste. Anne-Parkland UCP MLA Shane Getson (Photo:
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Alberta Politics: ‘Pause’ in Smith Government’s Alberta pension plan sales pitch sounds more like a strategic effort to regroup
On Friday, Finance Minister Nate Horner used what was billed an “Alberta Pension Plan engagement update” to announce the United Conservative Party Government will “pause” its effort to persuade Albertans the province should take over more than half the assets of the Canada Pension Plan and use them to set
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Chrystia Freeland says Canada’s chief actuary will determine how much cash Alberta would actually get if it pulls out of the CPP
When we heard Alberta Finance Minister Nate Horner say yesterday he’s encouraged to hear that the federal government will ask the Government of Canada’s chief actuary to determine how much cash Alberta would actually get if it were to pull out of the Canada Pension Plan, we could predict with
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Continuing CPP uproar means Danielle Smith and the UCP are getting what they want: the grownups are paying attention!
Like any teenager acting out, Danielle Smith must be delighted to have the entire country in a swivet about her government’s preposterous claim that even though Alberta has only about 16 per cent of Canada’s population less Quebec, which has its own pension plan, the country owes it 53 per
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Congratulations on your appointment, Mr. Dinning, your pension ‘consultation’ has a few flaws: CPP public affairs leader
Michel Leduc, the Canada Pension Plan’s head of public affairs and communications, recently demonstrated how to swiftly and skilfully eviscerate a goat, metaphorically speaking. Canada Pension Plan public affairs and communications chief Michel Leduc (Photo: Linked-In). I speak of Mr. Leduc’s Oct. 17 letter to Jim Dinning, the old Tory
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre joins Alberta pension plan uproar, proffers weak endorsement of Canada Pension Plan
In an obvious effort to inoculate himself against being identified as an enemy of the Canada Pension Plan, federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre yesterday inserted himself into the open-letter uproar over the Alberta Government’s plan to force the province’s citizens out of the CPP with a statement of his own.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Will Danielle Smith’s pension scheme drive a wedge right into the heart of Conservative support?
In the past few hours, a lot of metaphorical ink has been spilled on the duelling open letters about the Alberta Government’s scheme to pull the province’s still-skeptical population out of the Canada Pension Plan, the first from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday and the response from Alberta Premier
Continue readingAlberta Politics: RCMP to stay? CPP to go? Who knows? The Dance of the Thousand Mandate Letters continues
Danielle Smith’s Dance of the Thousand Mandate Letters continues. Now you see something; now you don’t. Then again maybe you just thought you saw something, and really saw nothing at all. It’s all very confusing. It’s intended to be. And it’s rather clever, giving the impression the government is doing
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Sounds like the UCP’s terrible Alberta pension scheme is right back on the front burner
Given the wide unpopularity of the idea of taking Alberta out of the Canada Pension Plan, it’s simply astounding that Alberta voters, the province’s professional commentators, and an Opposition party that had a shot at forming government allowed Premier Danielle Smith to get away with saying she just didn’t want
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Pensions don’t seem to be much of an issue in this election – pension governance expert says they should be
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said she didn’t want to talk about the idea of taking Alberta out of the Canada Pension Plan and creating an Alberta pension plan until after the election, and by and large the province’s political commentators have co-operated. Pension governance advisor Tom Fuller (Photo: David J.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Danielle Smith runs the idea of an Alberta pension plan referendum in May up the flagpole – then yanks it halfway down again
From time to time, Calgary Herald columnist Rick Bell has been used by Alberta Conservatives to float their trial balloons. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr). So when Mr. Bell reported yesterday morning that Premier Danielle Smith was thinking about holding a referendum on whether Alberta should dump the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Confronting reality, Kenney Government puts off plans for referendums on grabbing CPP, creating provincial police force
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has dropped his plans for referendums on taking over the Canada Pension Plan and replacing the RCMP with an easier-to-control provincial police force. For now. Finance Minister Travis Toews at yesterday’s news conference (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr). But these two unpopular remnants of Stephen Harper’s notorious sovereignist
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Definitive answers about AIMCo’s investment strategy weren’t forthcoming at Heritage Savings Trust Fund Committee meeting
If anyone expected definitive answers about the Alberta Investment Management Corp.’s underperformance compared to that of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board at Friday’s meeting of the Legislature’s Standing Committee on the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund, they were disappointed. Unlike the previous 26 of the committee’s quarterly meetings over
Continue readingAlberta Politics: UCP plan to grab CPP contributions for underperforming AIMCo would be ‘worst investment decision in Alberta’s history’
With representatives of the Alberta Investment Management Corp. scheduled to appear before the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund Committee today to explain their recent laggard performance, the NDP Opposition reminded Albertans about Premier Jason Kenney’s scheme to snatch their retirement savings from the Canada Pension Plan and hand them over
Continue readingAlberta Politics: UCP still covets CPP grubstake, so one way or another AIMCo CEO’s walk in the snow was inevitable
Did Kevin Uebelein jump or was he, ever so gently, shoved? Albertans can be confident we’ll never, ever get a straight answer about what led to the low-key announcement the day before yesterday that the CEO of the Alberta Investment Management Corp., better known as AIMCo, had decided to take
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Shopping Alberta’s Future: Boycott-loving UCP is shocked, just shocked, when the tactic is aimed at its supporters
Alberta’s United Conservatives: They can dish it out, but they can’t take it. Well, Premier Jason Kenney’s UCP wasn’t the first political party to discover turnabout is fair play, and it’s unlikely to be the last. United Conservative Party Caucus Deputy Executive Director Ryan Hastman in 2011 when he was
Continue readingAlberta Politics: As predicted, ‘Fair Deal’ Panel reheats the Firewall Manifesto to manufacture consent for policies Albertans don’t want
Consider the report of Alberta’s “Fair Deal” Panel, released yesterday by Premier Jason Kenney with considerable fanfare. It strongly suggests the Harper-Kenney wing of the Canadian Conservative movement is made up of people who purport to be Canadian patriots when they’re in power in Ottawa but are Prairie separatists when
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Somehow South Tyrolean autonomy doesn’t sound like the best way to sell the Alberta Fair Deal Panel’s dumb ideas
Sure sounds like Jason Kenney has a problem. He’s promised to release his Fair Deal Panel’s report next Monday, but it’s not at all clear Albertans are going to like what they hear. In politics, like the dairy cooler, things come with a best-before date. And the Fair Deal Panel’s
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Can Kenney’s plans for Albertans’ pensions survive the next round of bad AIMCo news?
Alberta’s Local Authorities Pension Plan was in “the healthiest position in its 58-year history” at the end of 2019, and things are still fine, the president and CEO of LAPP Corp. said in a message Friday to plan members and retirees. It would be going too far to call Chris
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Did the premier just forget to tell his Chief Medical Officer of Health he’s about to end Alberta’s public health emergency?
It was a short exchange during Wednesday afternoon’s daily COVID-19 briefing by Alberta Chief Medical Officer of Health Deena Hinshaw. It carried quite a bit of information, though. CBC Provincial Affairs Reporter Michelle Bellefontaine (Photo: Twitter). Here is my transcription: Disembodied official voice: “Operator, can you put through the next
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