Prime Minister Justin Trudeau entered the Alberta pension-exit debate Wednesday, saying the federal government will fight any threat to the stability of the Canada Pension Plan. In an open letter to Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, the prime minister also took her to task for launching the debate in the first place. Smith’s office didn’t immediately […]
Finance Minister Nate Horner says if Alberta abandons the Canada Pension Plan to run its own stand-alone fund, it will not adopt Quebec’s model, which mandates optimizing returns while also investing in the province. His comments come three weeks after Premier Danielle Smith said her government wants to hear from Albertans first before they make […]
Alberta’s opposition is launching its own survey on whether the province should leave the Canada Pension Plan, saying the government questionnaire is a “sham” and a “unicorn.” New Democratic Party finance critic Shannon Phillips says her party’s survey is to lay out a simple choice for Albertans, asking them whether they think leaving the CPP […]
A report commissioned by the Alberta government estimates the province would be entitled to more than half the assets of the Canada Pension Plan if it were to exit the national retirement savings program and go it alone. A third-party report compiled by consultant LifeWorks Inc. (now part of Telus Health) calculated that if Alberta gave the […]
In 2000, the federal government announced same-sex partners of Canada Pension Plan beneficiaries could claim survivor benefits, as long as their bereavement had occurred no earlier than 1998. This was of cold comfort to George Hislop, whose partner Ron Shearer had died in 1986. In 2003, the LGBTQ2S+ rights advocate and businessperson launched a class […]
The Fraser Institute’s president says Alberta’s newly elected premier should ride the wave of the United Conservative Party’s election win and move forward with exploring leaving the Canada Pension Plan. In May, Albertans re-elected Danielle Smith, with the UCP securing a majority government. There’s no better time to start the ‘leave’ discussion than now, says Niels […]
The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is bracing for headwinds in the event of a recession, but says a wide range of investments makes it well-positioned for uncertain economic conditions. The CPPIB reported Wednesday it earned a net return of 1.3 per cent in its latest fiscal year as inflation and rising interest rates weighed on both […]
Private sector pension plans could realize higher rates of return and produce lifetime income if they followed a model similar to their public sector counterparts, said Keith Ambachtsheer, executive in residence at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management and a senior fellow at the National Institute on Ageing at Toronto Metropolitan University, during a […]
While many Alberta employers say they’d be disadvantaged if the province left the Canada Pension Plan, one expert says a provincial pension plan could benefit members by reducing contributions and increasing retirement savings. Last November, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith instructed the province’s finance minister to provide recommendations on the implementation of a provincial pension plan. According […]
The maximum pensionable earnings under the Canada Pension Plan for 2023 is increasing to $66,600 from $64,900 in 2022. The new ceiling was calculated according to a CPP legislated formula that takes into account the growth in average weekly wages and salaries in Canada, according to a press release from the Canada Revenue Agency. Contributors who earn more than $66,600 in 2023 […]