Alberta’s conservative Wildrose party has suggested that the province withdraw from the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and create its own Alberta Pension Plan, reports the Calgary Herald.
“We are interested in looking at ensuring that Alberta has an opportunity to pursue its full range of options under provincial jurisdiction,” party leader Danielle Smith told reporters last week. “Our members are open to the idea of looking at an Alberta Pension Plan, and we’re going to pursue that—the feasibility of it—to see if it would actually make sense.”
The suggestion, which appears as policy 54 in the party’s green book, was last floated in 2001 as part of the now famous “firewall manifesto,” written by six conservative thinkers—among them, Stephen Harper—to encourage the Alberta government to exert its powers against the federal Liberal government.
However, Alberta Energy Minister Ted Morton, who was one of the manifesto’s authors, told the Calgary Herald that while the concept was right at the time, the Wildrose approach is outdated and the CPP is much healthier now than it was back then.
“We are getting good co-operation with Ottawa on improving pensions for working Canadians, and this is not the time to be picking fights about CPP with Ottawa,” Morton told the Calgary Herald.
Alberta’s provincial election will take place on April 23.