Is Stephen Harper, the person who holds Pierre Poilievre’s puppet strings, truly going to assist Danielle Smith attempt to wreck the Canada Pension Plan (CPP)?
Even contemplating how a lot hassle the Trudeau Liberals seem like in these days, that looks like a bizarre flex for the previous Conservative prime minister who certainly want to see Poilievre safely ensconced within the Prime Minister’s Workplace with as large a majority within the Home of Commons as doable.
Nonetheless, how else are we to interpret the understanding with which Postmedia is now reporting that Harper will certainly quickly be named chair of the board of the Alberta Funding Administration Corp. to assist Smith implement his 23-year-old fever dream of proudly owning the Libs by pulling Alberta out of the Canada Pension Plan and establishing its personal provincial pension?
In any case, Postmedia might not break many Alberta tales these days, but it surely acts as a part of the United Conservative Get together (UCP)’s propaganda ecosystem, so we are able to assume the statements about Harper’s future in Ontario Chronicle political commentator Don Braid’s column yesterday include the imprimatur of the Premier’s Workplace.
Braid’s column appears to substantiate BNN Bloomberg’s scoop Tuesday, within the wake of Alberta Finance Minister Nat Horner’s surprising Nov. 7 announcement he was sacking the Crown company’s CEO and its total board for causes that didn’t make a lot sense, and provides some spin useful to the UCP.
Mr. Braid even dropped a touch about what the Smith Authorities’s technique is likely to be for getting older Alberta voters, who concern and hate the thought of an Alberta pension plan, to return round: “Before a referendum, the big incentive would be a promise of lifetime monthly payments higher than the CPP.”
Because the level of the plan seems to be to pump Alberta pensioners’ retirement financial savings into the sunsetting fossil gas trade, that promise is likely to be more durable to maintain than it’s to file a political column on deadline, however with a scheme like this you solely must idiot the voters as soon as.
Over time, the change would nearly actually be uncovered as dangerous information for folk from this province who don’t have a pleasant Parliamentary pension as beneficiant as Harper’s.
Everybody one among us over 30 who lives right here in Wild Rose Nation is aware of somebody who says they’re severely contemplating fleeing the province if that’s what it takes to stay within the CPP, which has a historical past of being higher managed than AIMCo’s holdings. Harper’s presence on the AIMCo board gained’t change that.
An Alberta pull-out from the CPP Funding Fund would even be ugly information for all these different Canadians who should pay extra for much less – even when Premier Smith’s United Conservative Get together (UCP) doesn’t handle to get its paws on 53 per cent of the nationwide fund, as Alberta preposterously claims it will be owed.
Any day now we must always have the chief actuary of Canada’s estimate of what may actually be anticipated by Alberta.
The possibilities of Alberta getting 53 per cent of the fund, in fact, are zero, with or with out Harper pitching in to this essentially unpatriotic effort. However even with a smaller payout, any Conservative politician who went together with this might count on to be reviled in the remainder of Canada outdoors Quebec, which has had its personal pension plan from the get-go. All of the extra so if Alberta pensioners managed to gather just a little extra for a spell.
Be that as it could, such an effort wouldn’t be fully off model for Harper. He was one of many authors – maybe the principal writer – of the infamous Firewall Letter, the 2001 Alberta sovereignty-association screed that known as for the province to give up the CPP, create a provincial pension plan, and undertake different measures that will quantity to a half-step out of Confederation.
The Conservative premier of the day, Ralph Klein, sensibly tossed it into the recycler. Alas, now it’s being recycled anyway, and never as a clear sheet of typing paper.
Furthermore, when he was prime minister, readers will recall that Harper was no pal of pensioners, making an attempt in 2012 to boost the age of eligibility for Previous Age Safety and the Assured Earnings Complement to 67 from 65.
As a CUPE researcher identified within the leadup to the 2015 federal election, this may have been “the biggest cut ever made to Canada’s modest public pension system,” doubtlessly pushing tons of of hundreds of Canadian seniors into poverty.
Keep in mind as nicely that the 2011 Harper Conservatives promised of their election platform to not lower pensions, however reversed course lower than a 12 months later with a ready-made plan. This actually suggests a hidden agenda merchandise that was there all alongside.
Quickly after coming to energy, fortunately, the Trudeau Liberals reversed the Harper pension cuts earlier than they took impact, but it surely’s one thing for Albertans to consider in the event that they’re questioning how assured they are often about Alberta-managed pension funds, with or with out Stephen Harper setting AIMCo’s strategic course.
However – who is aware of? – perhaps Harper will throw his Ottawa protégé over the aspect if that’s what it takes to appreciate his Firewall fantasy and additional undermine the precept of holding Canadian seniors out of poverty.
AIMCo board member compensation
For those who’re questioning what AIMCo’s board members are paid, there are some fascinating figures on pages 83 and 84 of the Crown company’s 2022 annual report. Annual base retainers of $20,000 ($50,000 for the chair) and per-meeting funds of $1,000 might not sound like a lot on this period of multi-million-dollar C-Suite salaries, however one imagines that if Harper joins the board the UCP will discover a method to make sure he’s paid significantly extra. In the meantime, the multi-million-dollar government salaries are listed on web page 78.
Don’t count on them to shrink below the UCP’s extra congenial alternative regime, coming quickly after a brand new CEO is known as, however Horner’s complaints about prices at AIMCo.
Former Alberta NDP chief of employees lands in Saskatchewan
Readers shall be to notice that Jeremy Nolais, the Alberta NDP’s chief of employees from 2019 till the celebration management modified and on go away as former justice minister Kathleen Ganley’s management marketing campaign supervisor final spring, has landed on his ft in Saskatchewan.
Nolais has taken up duties as chief of employees to Opposition Chief Carla Beck and the Saskatchewan NDP Caucus.
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