Dear Editor,
CPP spokespersons have come out with a plan to see the fund grow to $1 trillion over the next seven or eight years.
Longer term goals are to grow the plan to $3 trillion. CPP can only do this by upping premiums and/or shorting beneficiaries. Their records show they have achieved market beating returns but 10 per cent of the funds are now invested in India and China. Given Ottawa’s latest forays into that marketplace, what actual value do those "assets" have and how secure might those investments be? With rising interest rates, even previously booked safe secure Government of Canada Bonds are under water.
The Ponzi nature of CPP also ensures that the money invested by contributors is never entirely returned to plan members and a lot of potential retirees will collect absolutely nothing. Ten per cent of Canadians die before reaching the age of 65.
With the debate over CPP and APP raging in Alberta one has to wonder where Ottawa plans to get the $2 trillion needed to fund the "green" transition to a now conceptual net zero economy?
Sure CPP could grow "green" assets on its balance sheet and report glowing returns due to taxpayer subsidies and utility overcharges in its annual reports.
But, with a government thinking of capital depreciation as a subsidy, those solar and wind "investments" will depreciate to "net" zero value in 20 to 25 years.
That $2 trillion investment will have to be refinanced, presumably by higher utility rates and/or higher taxes and/or higher CPP contributions. Little room for beneficiary payout adjustments as we slay the climate change dragon and our standard of living along with it.
Naysayers are worried about Danielle Smith and her buddies grabbing pensioners hard-earned assets for personal or political use. But the provincial government already runs employee pension funds. The benefits flowing from those funds are already superior to CPP payouts.
Alberta has one of the most highly trained and educated workforces in the world. There are many capable firms and individuals within our provincial borders that could apply their talents to an APP. Such investments are subject to ongoing audits.
The management of an APP will be subject to all the laws of the land. If one is worried about systemic theft and regulatory failure, well stuffing the mattress with cash is always an option.
Sure, something can always go wrong, but given what is happening in Ottawa these days, one gets cold comfort from the thought that Alberta's hard-earned pension monies are in the hands of that bunch.
It's one thing to suffer the vagaries of the marketplace, quite another to regulate and mismanage your own pathway into poverty.
Edward Osborne
Foothills County
