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Origins of Schemes for Alberta Pension Plan
The proposal to have Alberta withdraw from the Canada Pension Plan dates back to 2001, when on Stephen Harper's initiative, Harper and five members of the "Calgary School" published an "An open letter to Ralph Klein." The letter declared that in the 2000 federal election, the Chrétien Liberals, who had come out on top, winning 172 of 301 seats in the House of Commons, had conducted "a series of attacks not merely designed to defeat its partisan opponents, but to marginalize Alberta and Albertans within Canada's political system."[1]
"It is imperative to take the initiative, to build firewalls around Alberta, to limit the extent to which an aggressive and hostile federal government can encroach upon legitimate provincial jurisdiction," the letter to Klein stated. The letter became known as the Firewall Letter.[2]
The Firewall Letter called for a provincial pension plan, a provincial police force to replace the RCMP, collecting its own provincial income tax, Senate "reform" modelled on the U.S. Senate with elected Senators and all provinces and Quebec having the same number of Senators, and removing all federal control over health care. It also demanded that the Klein government demand changes to the equalization formula. Klein was focused on restructuring of the state, carrying out a then unprecedented slashing of health care, education and social programs together with large-scale privatization of publicly owned enterprises and delivery of public services in massive pay-the-rich schemes. The government did not take up the proposals in the Firewall Letter.
Harper set his sights on control of the federal political power. The Harper government in power did change the equalization formula in 2009. This did not stop Jason Kenney, a leading member of Harper's government, from claiming the new formula was unfair to Alberta, and engaging in Quebec bashing, and even holding a referendum on the matter when he became Premier of Alberta.
The proposals contained in the Firewall Letter disappeared during the years in which the Harper Conservatives were in power, re-emerged briefly in the 2012 provincial election when Danielle Smith was leader of the Wildrose Party, and then disappeared again until the election of Jason Kenney's United Conservative party (UCP). Kenney established a "Fair Deal Panel" in 2019 which issued a report in 2020 reviving various proposals from the Firewall Letter including exploration of an Alberta Pension plan and an Alberta police force to replace the RCMP.
Only with the election of Danielle Smith has the idea of an Alberta Pension Plan moved beyond a talking point in the battle for regulatory control of energy and other projects and acquiring and controlling funds for infrastructure investments. But Smith is facing opposition from the private interests she is tasked to serve. One reason is that her scheme is out of sync with the fight to control the federal political power. Since the Firewall Letter in 2012, establishing an Alberta Pension Plan and other such proposals have been part of the depiction of Liberal federal governments as hostile to Alberta. But leaving the CPP is a years-long project, and going forward with it would pit Harper's man Poilievre, whether in power or in opposition, against a UCP government in Alberta. Time to stand down, you've had your fun, the message to Danielle Smith seems to be.
This article was published in
Volume 53 Number 12 - December 2023
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2023/Articles/M530128.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca