Letter to Alberta Premier from Congress of Union Retirees, Calgary Chapter
The following letter to Premier Danielle Smith was sent on December 4 by Peggy Askin, President, Calgary Area Council, Congress of Union Retirees in Canada.
I am writing on behalf of the Calgary Chapter of the Congress of Union Retirees to address some of our concerns with your government's proposal to take Albertans out of the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and to form an Alberta Pension Plan (APP).
Our
members know well what it means to live on a retirement income, and how
important it is to have security in retirement. As union retirees, many
of us have work pensions in addition to OAS and CPP. As union members
we experienced the ongoing assault on defined benefit pensions and
their
replacement with insecure "defined contribution plans," while many
retirees do not have work pensions at all. Many seniors are struggling
to pay the bills with soaring food prices, rents, utilities and other
necessities; women seniors who live alone are particularly vulnerable
to a life of
poverty.
Our major concern for ourselves and all working people in our province and across the country is that the right to security in retirement, and to the care that seniors require is upheld. Our stand is to defend the pensions we have and to fight for a secure retirement for all. What we urgently need in Alberta and for that matter Canada and Quebec is secure pensions at retirement to ensure a Canadian standard of living.
The actions of your government show that far from having an aim to improve the lives of pensioners, the aim of establishing an APP is part of the battle of competing private interests for control over wealth created by the working people.
To put our retirement security in the hands of an APP created by your government is in our view both unacceptable and to say the least very risky. It also puts the retirement security of our younger generation at risk.
A major concern is who controls decision-making over how pension funds are invested. Through Bill 22, the Reform of Agencies, Boards and Commissions and Government Enterprises Act (2019), the UCP government seized total control over how the pensions funds of 350,000 workers are invested, giving the minister of finance the power to direct specific investments with our pension dollars. This is reason enough to oppose the APP your government is floating.
Bill 22 put the Alberta Teachers Retirement fund under the control of the Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo), deprived all public sector pension boards of their ability to select a pension administrator, and are now all managed by AIMCo, which means that pension boards will have no say over (how) pension funds are managed. Through these changes a UCP government seized control of $115 billion in pension funds which belong to workers employed by the Alberta government, Alberta Health Services, school boards, municipalities, post secondary colleges, universities and other public sector employees. Bill 22 also deprived many workers of the ability to participate in the pension plans at their workplaces.
It appears that your government is now wanting to exercise control over billions more, providing investment capital to pay the rich, such as privatization schemes and risky investments in oil and gas.
The actions of your government are further proof of why Alberta workers should decisively reject your scheme to form the APP. The government has provided ridiculous estimates of what funds an APP would receive from the CPP. Its "consultation" process has shown utter disrespect for the views of Albertans, including a survey which did not even provide Albertans an opportunity to say No! and telephone town halls where the moderator actively intervenes to oppose those who speak against the proposed withdrawal from the CPP. Many who have attended the telephone "town halls" report that they are more like a session to push the APP and that many with questions and comments are not given an opportunity to speak, and conclude that they are a sham.
The scandalous spending of what is estimated to be close to $7.5 million dollars in public dollars to date on an advertising campaign to promote misinformation about the supposed advantages of an APP is not just unacceptable, it is a clear abuse of power.
It is extremely unlikely that your government will succeed in taking Alberta out of the CPP, given that the proposal benefits only those who want to get their hands on the pension funds, is broadly opposed by Albertans, and will be also opposed by whatever party forms the federal government, not to mention the rest of Canada.
This begs the question of whether the government considers it a way to divert attention from your refusal to meet the needs of the people of Alberta, including the crisis in health care and seniors care, education, affordable housing, homelessness, and the soaring costs of food, electricity, rents and other necessities.
In conclusion our stand is that the proposal for an APP be withdrawn! We defend the pensions we have and fight for retirement security for all.
This article was published in
Volume 53 Number 12 - December 2023
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2023/Articles/M530126.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca