Alberta Politics & Government Thread 3.0

[powderjunkie]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

Great plan, but UCP voters can’t read.

Here we go again with the personal insults. We conservatives just want to destroy the public sector and also make sure that those #### biscuit trans kids feel unsafe for as many hours of the day as possible, yet you feel the need to degenerate the discussion with your petty insults. Who is the real monster here?

Be better.

[undercoverbrother]

hahahahaha

[Muta]

Danielle Smith’s plan to withdraw from CPP would leave all Canadians – including Albertans – poorer

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/busi...-withdraw-cpp/

Scale allows a larger fund to lower costs, which translates into better results. Over the past decade, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) averaged 10-per-cent annual returns, well above the 7.2-per-cent yearly gains posted by the Alberta Investment Management Corp. (AIMCo), which oversees public-sector pensions and other funds in the province. With $575-billion in assets, CPPIB is roughly four times the size of AIMCo.

Gutting the CPP to start another, smaller fund would hurt performance at both asset managers, and result in higher contributions and lower benefits not only for Albertans, but also for residents of eight other provinces.

Even if Ms. Smith is successful in creating a provincial pension plan – and federal regulations do allow Alberta to exit the CPP – the resulting fund would be far smaller than what the Premier is promising.

[Fuzz]

Is this just piling on now? Ah well, add it to the pile(from noted left wing lunatic, Trevor Tombe).

It’s hard to see the Alberta Pension Plan idea as anything but the latest weapon in the political battle between Edmonton and Ottawa over issues like pipelines and climate policy.

This is a very risky strategy. Creating a separate Alberta pension is currently irreversible. While there’s a mechanism to leave the CPP, there is none to join. With so many relying on this stable and secure source of income for retirement, Albertans – and all Canadians – deserve better than politicians playing politics with their pensions.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opin...full-of-holes/

So it seems it would be a catastrophic irrecoverable error to do this. Which means UCP voters will be all in.

[Frequitude]

It really is unfortunate to see how many posters are incapable of objectively discussing content without attacking the people who have opposing views.

[Fuzz]

There comes a point where reasoned discussions of insane policies just aren't worth the effort, becuase only those unable to evaluate fact and reason are left to defend policies that are clearly done for political reasons and not for the benefit of citizens. I'm not sure when we crossed that bridge but I think it's pretty safe to say you couldn't see it with the JWST at this point.


You have reasonable position of defence for this that can be argued with defensible points, backed up by expert opinion? Go ahead. If not, join the pile. So far no one has provided any defence for this.

[Frequitude]

I'm opposed to the APP idea for three reasons, even though the math probably does say its "right".

1. CPP have demonstrated to be exceptional asset managers. That is hard to replicate, especially at smaller scale. I'm willing to forgo some "better for Albertans based on math" in return for excellent CPP management.

2. Risk of our demographic not always being as favorable to pension economics.

3. Risk of APP capital being preferentially and suboptimally deployed in the province, leading to poorer returns and undiversified risk.

[TheIronMaiden]

Point 4. The massive cost in money and energy for the government to try and fix something that isn't broke. It strikes me as a bureaucratic make work project.

[FlameOn]

Originally Posted by TheIronMaiden

Point 4. The massive cost in money and energy for the government to try and fix something that isn't broke. It strikes me as a bureaucratic make work project.

We've seen how the UCP plan to privatize lab services turned out.

[Fuzz]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1706698490443858017


Isn't this basically what Shandro did? Corrupt to the core.

[Doctorfever]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

https://twitter.com/user/status/1706698490443858017


Isn't this basically what Shandro did? Corrupt to the core.

They should both be removed from their positions. Brutal.

[Ozy_Flame]

Chef's kiss

https://twitter.com/user/status/1706448749944508768

[edslunch]

Originally Posted by #-3

But on average we are doing terrible because a higher percentage of us have made more than $65,000 / year over the past 20 years (inflation adjusted) and aren't yet retired.

And even worse, people are 4x as likely to move to BC after retirement so more CPP gets paid out in BC than in Alberta. Imagine all the economic activity that could be created if we had to pickup the medical bills for all those pension earners.

Helpfully, data about inter-provincial migration was not available to the report writers. This is from page 51 of the report:

Data limitations
The data sources listed in the section above did not contain enough information to calculate the asset transfer amount with certainty. The best estimate figures shown in Table B.1.a and Table B.1.b represent what we have considered to be a reasonable interpretation of the available data. Significant limitations of the available data which could distort Alberta’s share of the overall cash flows include:
• Data to identify the impact of interprovincial migrants and interprovincial employees was not available.
• Minor unexplained discrepancies between various data sources.
• Base CPP rate of return data for the years 1966 to 1998 was provided on a cost basis only.
• A breakdown by province of CPP operating expense figures was not available.
• A breakdown by province of CPP benefits owed to non-residents of Canada was not available.

There’s also this fun fact in the report:

The calculation of the initial asset transfer amount from the CPP to an APP

A literal reading of the legislation (Section 113(2) of the CPP Act) as written implies that investment returns should only be applied to CPP contributions, and not to benefit payments and CPP administration costs. Applying this literal reading of the CPP Act would result in an unrealistically large Base asset transfer figure of $637 billion as of December 31, 2021 (117% of Base CPP assets as of that date), which our model projects to grow to approximately $747 billion (118% of Base CPP assets) as of January 1, 2027. An alternate and reasonable interpretation is to apply investment returns to the net cash flows of contributions less benefit payments and CPP administration costs. This alternate interpretation has been used for the purposes of this report.

[iggy_oi]

Originally Posted by Doctorfever

They should both be removed from their positions. Brutal.

When you’re right, you’re right.

Schulz is brutal.

[Jacks]

I know you guys don't want to hear it but right now is the time for the NDP to cut ties with the Federal party and rebrand themselves as the Alberta Democrats. Even with how much of a crap show the UCP is they will likely win the next election. Save your breath with "stupid voters" blah blah blah, the goal is to form government not to have the moral high ground.

[Johnny Makarov]

Originally Posted by Jacks

I know you guys don't want to hear it but right now is the time for the NDP to cut ties with the Federal party and rebrand themselves as the Alberta Democrats. Even with how much of a crap show the UCP is they will likely win the next election. Save your breath with "stupid voters" blah blah blah, the goal is to form government not to have the moral high ground.

Too late for that now. They needed to do that 4 years ago!

It's Notley's fault Danielle Smith is our effing premier! She totally underestimated how dumb and no-good some Calgarians are.

[iggy_oi]

Originally Posted by Jacks

I know you guys don't want to hear it but right now is the time for the NDP to cut ties with the Federal party and rebrand themselves as the Alberta Democrats. Even with how much of a crap show the UCP is they will likely win the next election. Save your breath with "stupid voters" blah blah blah, the goal is to form government not to have the moral high ground.

Originally Posted by Johnny Makarov

Too late for that now. They needed to do that 4 years ago!

It's Notley's fault Danielle Smith is our effing premier! She totally underestimated how dumb and no-good some Calgarians are.

Something like 44 out of 48 years of Albertans voting for one banner but a name for the opposition ought to do it.

[Johnny Makarov]

Originally Posted by iggy_oi

Something like 44 out of 48 years of Albertans voting for one banner but a name for the opposition ought to do it.

We are pretty dumb... so yes. Tell Singh to eff off, ditch the orange for purple and convert some of these deplorables before the UCP drive us off a cliff that we can never recover from.

[iggy_oi]

Originally Posted by Johnny Makarov

We are pretty dumb... so yes. Tell Singh to eff off, ditch the orange for purple and convert some of these deplorables before the UCP drive us off a cliff that we can never recover from.

The NDP were literally less than a few thousand net votes across multiple ridings from winning. I may be optimistic to a fault but I have enough faith in Albertans that a majority will eventually figure it out.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by iggy_oi

The NDP were literally less than a few thousand net votes across multiple ridings from winning. I may be optimistic to a fault but I have enough faith in Albertans that a majority will eventually figure it out.

There are probably a few thousand people in those ridings that are dumb enough that a name change would have switched the entire outcome.