PrintAlberta's Pension Promise
Alberta is the only province where public sector pensions aren't jointly governed by the people who pay for the plan – workers and employers.
Alberta's Finance Minister is the sole trustee of the Local Authorities Pension Plan (LAPP) and the Public Services Pension Plan (PSPP), even though all other Canadian provinces use a jointly trusteed governance structure. The joint worker-employer trustee governance model is best practice, and it's also common sense – the people who pay for the plan should be in charge of it.
Only three years ago, the PC government of the day tried to transform public pensions from defined benefit plans into a so-called “targeted benefit” plan, which would have put the retirement security of thousands of Albertans at risk. These changes were proposed without the approval of workers or employers, because under current legislation, workers and employers aren't guaranteed a say. This would never have been possible in a joint governance model.
Pensions are the cornerstone of retirement security for more than 300,000 Albertans in LAPP and PSPP. Workers and employers deserve to decide how things are run, with changes negotiated and agreed to by both sides, not imposed by government.
