Many against provincial pension plan: UAlberta poll

New polling from the University of Alberta shows many are still not on board with the premier’s plans to leave the Canada Pension Plan (CPP).

U of A political science professor Jared Wesley says the responses differed among respondents with different political affiliation.

“In general, United Conservative Party supporters were more likely to support a provincial pension plan, but still only a third of them do,” he explained. “New Democrats are staunchly against the notion of establishing a separate pension plan — about 75 per cent of New Democrats in Alberta say they are strongly opposed to the idea.”

Fifty-seven per cent of the 1,123 respondents to the survey oppose the idea, which Wesley says is mainly because of the risks.

“While certain Albertans, particularly those that support the UCP seem to think that Albertans might pay less into an Alberta Pension Plan (APP) or might get more out of a plan, they still don’t think it’s worth it because of the lack of retirement security,” he explained.

Only 22 per cent of the respondents support the idea, 20 per cent neither support or oppose, and about one-third feel they would receive more money by leaving.

Wesley says this isn’t surprising, as the issue is quite polarizing.

“Pensions are one of those rare issues in Alberta these days where Albertans are firmly on one side of the debate rather that the other, in this case they’re against an Alberta Pension Plan,” he said. “But at the same time, they also recognize where mainstream public opinion is on this, most Albertans know that Albertans are opposed to this, which is different from a lot of other policy issues that we’ve surveyed on.”

He also noted that most respondents don’t believe the premier’s claims that Alberta would be entitled to $330 billion if we were to leave.

Wesley says that likely won’t change even when Canada’s chief actuary delivers a final estimate on Alberta’s share in the fall.