KENNEY’S PLAN TO MOVE ALBERTANS’ RETIREMENT SAVINGS TO AIMCO WOULD COST HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS

EDMONTON - New analysis shows that Jason Kenney’s plan to move Albertans’ retirement savings out of the Canada Pension Plan and into AIMCo would cost hundreds of billions of dollars over the coming years.

“It is beyond comprehension that Jason Kenney would put at risk hundreds of billions of dollars in returns when he’s got literally the world’s best investment manager, CPPIB, doing the work for Albertans right now — and doing a good job at that,” said Christina Gray, NDP Critic for Labour.

In 2020, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board delivered an annual return of 12.1 per cent, while AIMCo delivered only 2.5 per cent.

If CPPIB was managing the money AIMCo currently manages, Alberta pensioners and the Government of Alberta would have earned an additional $11.4 billion in a single year.

Compound annual returns alone would grow those one-year gains to more than $200 billion over the next 30 years.

Despite this, on a call with United Conservative Party donors on May 27, Kenney said “I’ve actually personally become increasingly bullish and supportive of the prospects of an Alberta Pension Plan and Alberta police force.”

AIMCo is scheduled to appear before the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund Committee tomorrow and defend their performance. Less than 24 hours beforehand, the government has failed to release the fund’s annual report.

“Kenney has to stop with this ludicrous and dangerous plan to pull out of CPP,” Gray said. “This is Alberta’s future, this is the retirement security that all of us hope to have and this Premier, in his continuous work to divert from his failed economic plan and his loss of tens of thousands of jobs, continues to cause stress and continues to try to convince Albertans of a plan that makes no sense.

“It would be the worst investment decision in Alberta’s history.”