Dear unabashed Alberta Pension Plan (APP) and “Take Down the LPC [Liberal Party of Canada]” supporters,I hear your frustration with balkers such as me who don’t jump from the barn roof onto the passing hay wagon before knowing what is under the hay. I am a senior living off the avails of the CPP who is reluctant to change horses midstream. I like to think my hesitation is not due to a complete collapse of courage but rather to a remembrance of bitter history and a lack of trust in government — any government. Allow me to push back ever so gently against your full-blown support for the APP.I have read the LifeStream report and consider that the amount to be received by Alberta from the CPP will be between a per capita allocation and the LifeStream amount. The report was straight forward in its description of the lack of data which informed their calculation. There was clearly no intent to deceive as is implied by some of our federal guardians. In my view Albertans will do better than the CBC implies but not as good as the LifeStream report indicates. The amount of the CPP to be attributed to the APP is not the issue with me. It will be correctly calculated in due time. My problem is I have no confidence in the APP until I see the specifics of how the fund will be managed. Alberta has a disturbing history of promising that “politics will be kept away from the people’s money” and then injecting politics into the management of the people’s money.In the face of collapsing petroleum prices, former Premier Don Getty needed cash to diversify the province without cutting services and employees. His government, he assured us, could pick winners to diversify the Alberta economy. And he did so by making investments from the Heritage Trust fund. It turns out he was not a good "picker" and we lost a lot of money. Did some of the investments go to friends with really good ideas? I prefer to think that Mr. Getty had pure motives but, like me, zero ability to discern the future.Mr. Getty was followed by Ralph Klein who instituted a law to prevent the Heritage Trust fund from being raided to meet operating exigencies but as surely as day follows night, after the debt was paid off, the HTFSA was raided. These are historical facts, and they must be recognized.I have every confidence in the good faith of Premier Smith and appreciate her willingness to take the fight to our Laurentian betters. But, I have zero confidence in the government she manages. Or any government for that matter. As stated, Alberta’s governments have a history of easily breaching legislative hedges designed to prevent them from messing around with large pots of "protected" money. Perhaps Premier Smith could also demonstrate good intent by cutting spending in today’s hot economy to reduce the temptation of a future premier to dip into retirement funds in a bad economy.Before I give my assent to the APP, I will need to see the details of how a premier ten years from now is prevented from "picking winners" who just happen to also be friends and benefactors. To do otherwise would make me an appallingly irresponsible fiduciary to my grandchildren and beyond.Further, it would be irresponsible to not look at alternative options in the administration of the APP. For example, would it be possible to allow seniors to remain with and withdraw from the CPP while working Albertans start contributing to the new Alberta plan? It might settle a lot of older, heaving hearts. I suppose it might be argued the younger workers need the investment income from my accumulated pension to fund their future pension contribution reductions but isn’t that the same argument being used to support withdrawing from the CPP? Maybe such a modification is not feasible, but it would be interesting to test that feasibility.So, in calling into question the levels of my testosterone let me confirm your suspicions — they are down. But that is not a valid critique of my objections to a wholesale rush to an Alberta Pension Plan. No doubt there are good answers to my objections. But please show me the answers before asking for my vote. There might be sharp objects hidden under the hay. I would like to know this before jumping on them.
