‘Pure magical thinking’: Albertans filled premier’s inbox with emails opposing provincial pension plan

Emailers overwhelmingly expressed concern over their retirement security, and skepticism of leaving the Canada Pension Plan (CPP), according to dozens of messages sent to Premier Danielle Smith’s office the day after her government released its pension plan report.

The emails were received by the premier’s office on Sept. 22 and later obtained by Postmedia via a freedom of information request. The names and email addresses of the senders are redacted.

Smith’s office received 150 original emails that day, with 138 of them (or 92 per cent) expressing opposition to leaving the CPP.

The analysis excludes 756 duplicate or form emails, all of which were opposed to creating an Alberta pension plan (APP).

Those who emailed also largely doubted the figures in the province’s pension report, in particular the assertion that Alberta would be entitled to more than half of the CPP’s assets should it withdraw from the national program.

“The people that somehow came to the conclusion that they are entitled to $334 billion in assets from the CPP should not be trusted with $334 to manage,” reads one email.

“This is pure magical thinking and is a totally unsound starting point for considering an Alberta pension plan,” reads another.

Many emailers also took issue with the province’s pension engagement survey, which offers no direct option to express opposition to a potential Alberta pension plan. |Read more https://edmontonjournal.com/news/politics/pure-magical-thinking-albertans-filled-premiers-inbox-with-emails-opposing-provincial-pension-plan | edmontonjournal.com/news/polit…

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