CPP exit plan stalls as Alberta survey shows strong opposition and limited public appetite
A provincial government survey of 93,000 Albertans found 63 percent opposed to leaving the Canada Pension Plan (CPP), with only 10 percent supporting an Alberta Pension Plan (APP), according to results released following a lengthy access-to-information battle reported.
As per the CTV News report, 12 percent of respondents were undecided, and 15 percent submitted incomplete or alternative responses.
The results were withheld for nearly two years until requests by media and mediation through the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner prompted their release.
CUPE Alberta President Raj Uppal stated, “There is no case for leaving the CPP. An Alberta plan would cost more, and deliver weaker investment returns and smaller pensions.”
She urged the UCP government to abandon the idea, adding, “The Premier needs to abandon this idea and stop threatening the retirement security of Albertans.”
As reported by CityNews, Alberta NDP Shadow Minister for Affordability and Utilities, Sharif Haji, criticized the delay in releasing the results, saying the “vast, clear majority of Albertans reject the UCP government’s plan to take away our CPP.”
Haji added that the UCP government “just does not listen to Albertans.”
The provincial government maintains it will not implement an APP without a public vote.
A statement from the Ministry of Treasury Board and Finance, cited by CTV News, said, “We will continue to engage with Albertans on this topic through the Alberta Next panel.
The Alberta Pension Protection Act guarantees we won’t replace the CPP with an APP unless Albertans approve it in a referendum.”
Premier Danielle Smith said in May, as per Global News, “I’m not seeing that there’s an appetite to put it to the people at the moment.”
Although she has promoted the APP idea since becoming premier in 2022, she has not committed to a referendum timeline.
Recent polling suggests mixed opinions depending on how questions are framed.
A February 2025 Leger poll found 55 percent opposed and 23 percent in favour.
A May 2025 poll from Janet Brown Trend Research, commissioned by the Alberta government, found 55 percent in support when additional details were included.
Political science professor Duane Bratt told Global News the government’s survey lacked neutrality, as it assumed interest in an APP.
“The question itself was, would you want to leave the CPP if you had the exact same program. In the absence of any details, how do you know that that’s the exact same program?” Bratt added the delay in publishing results “shows a lack of transparency.”
According to CBC News, Premier Smith has promoted the idea of Alberta opting out of CPP since at least 2003.
Her argument hinges on a government-commissioned Lifeworks report that estimated Alberta would be entitled to $334bn — more than half the total assets of the CPP fund.
However, Michel Leduc, senior managing director of the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), told CBC News that the $334bn figure is an “impossible number,” and emphasized the need for skepticism.
He warned that applying the same withdrawal formula across provinces would leave a negative balance.
As per CBC News, University of Calgary economist Trevor Tombe estimated Alberta’s realistic share at 20 to 25 percent of CPP assets, a figure the federal chief actuary later supported in a December report.
Leduc said Tombe’s estimate was closer to reality, even if still high.
Any decision on the division of CPP assets lies with the federal government, not Alberta or its consultants.
The role of CPPIB and the scale of its investment performance since the 1990s reforms have raised questions about how a stand-alone Alberta pension could replicate national returns.
Smith has suggested Alberta’s fund could be managed by Alberta Investment Management Co. (AIMCo), but as reported by CBC News, critics note that AIMCo’s track record falls short of CPPIB’s and is more vulnerable to political interference.
While the Alberta government previously approved $7.5m for a public campaign promoting the APP, the public’s response — and the pace of official disclosures — suggest continued uncertainty on whether Albertans would support such a change if presented in a referendum.
