Alberta and the CPP

Leo de Bever, who retired from Alberta Investment Management Corp. or AIMCo in 2015, says the threatened move by the Alberta government to pull out of the national plan is really about asserting the province's place in the country in the face of opposition to pipelines for its vital oil and gas industry. 

"Look, it would be better if all of Canada had one plan, OK, from an efficiency point of view," he said in an interview Thursday, noting there are economies of scale from having one investment manager. 

"But I think this is just a symptom of something much deeper ... If you're invading our turf and telling us what we cannot do, then maybe we should take away some stuff that we've given to you to administer.'" (read full article here)

This is very true, but I disagree with some aspects of the efficiency point of view. It must be remembered that Alberta contributes far more to the CPP than the national average (with us removed). This means that Alberta is subsidizing the pensions of other provinces. If this wasn't bad enough, the federal government (in fits of self inflicted debt madness) occasionally likes to steal money from the pension plan coffers to spend on pet projects. As such, they can not be trusted to manage our money. 

And I remember the mismanagement of the CPP in the 1990s when it became evident that they were paying out more benefits than they were receiving. The system's collapse was imminent. What else would you expect from a ponzi scheme? I am a generation Xer, and I was told that there wouldn't be any pension left for me - even though I was still paying heavily for it with my taxes. The Feds tell us they have worked all that out now. That we should trust them, as they raid our pension fund, which is our money, to artificially detract from the size of their wasteful spending and growing deficits. If they can't run the government without debt, why would I expect them to manage my pension? Would you hire a personal investor to manage your portfolio who couldn't balance his own credit card? Bring it closer to home so we can keep an eye on it.

Albertians are industrious and we generate capital. We can take care of ourselves. And the rest of you can take care of yourselves.