Thread by @yomeeks

The Pension War Room™️ comments on the Fair Deal Report: Wow, what a blatant pile of unconstitutional dog whistles reheated by that has-been Preston. I will try to stick to my lane, which is the (stupid) suggestion of pulling out of CPP. #ABLeg

The panel suggests that the idea of an APP needs to be studied. No. They need to read the study that was already done by a preeminent Canadian pension expert: #ABLeg (Sorry this might be a TL:dr)
kpa-advisory.com/policy-papers/…

Or, if you want something shorter, read this for quotes from Malcolm Hamilton another top shelf pension expert: #ABLeg

benefitscanada.com/news/can-cpp-h…

The gist of it is pulling out of CPP would result in (temporarily) lower costs for Albertan because of the young and high earning demographic of the workforce.

Pulling out would make financial sense if AB was going to be forever young. Won't happen. #ABLeg #dontpullout

In Quebec, QPP started with contributions lower than CPP and now it has HIGHER contributions than CPP. The same would happen in Alberta over the next 15-20 years. @jkenney doesn't care because he knows his political shelf life in this province has limited years left. #ABLeg

This assumes that you can set up a pension payment and accounting organization to administer the darn thing. The cost would be hundreds of millions of dollars. And, the outcome would be not guaranteed. (See the feds Phoenix Pay System, a massive failure by any measure.) #ABLeg

Now for the funny bits the panel slipped in:

"Any fund manager(s) selected for the APP fund would be guided by a clear governance and accountability mandate to deter political interference."

No shit. #ABLeg

They go on to say that AIMCO has clear governance and accountability mandates.

Nope. AIMCO's governance needs help. Accountability is an all time low.

How many million dollar bonuses were paid for sub-benchmark 2019 performance? Wait, you won't tell us?

Hidden in a footnote:
"The numbers quoted come from a study by the Fraser Institute ... The panel verified these numbers by checking against Statistics Canada sources cited in the study, as well as other sources such as the OSFI.... " #ABLeg

"The numbers in the Fraser Institute’s study can be verified as being reasonably accurate."

That's right. The Fraser Institute has purveyed erroneous data so often they had to be fact checked by the Fair Deal Panel. #ABLeg

Remember this is the same Fraser Institute that campaigned for years that second hand smoke wasn't bad for you. (Google it).

As we say, it isn't the data that is bad (it came from Stats Can), it is the conclusions that are wrong. #ABLeg

As I have said before, they are masters of assuming correlation=causality. And, taking things that are true putting them next to things that aren't and then treating it all as a big ol' truth. #ABLeg

Nowhere does the Institute examine how long AB will be younger than average.

Again, we see politicians pushing a stupid idea because of short term gain. Pensions are (and should be) the ultimate long term game. Except this isn't a game. Your messing with lives. #ABLeg

One more serious error buried in a footnote....

"It should be noted the eight large Canadian pension plan managers including the CPPIB and AIMCo are regarded as global leaders by their international peers in
... the scale of their assets and their solid performance."

AIMCO IS NOT A PENSION MANAGER. THEY ARE AN INVESTMENT MANAGER. THEY HAVE NO SPECIFIC PENSION EXPERTISE. NONE.

There only job is managing investments. LAPP is a pension manager, ATRF is a pension manager. AIMCO misrepresents themselves here. #ABLeg

And, they are an investment manager whose clients would leave them if they had a chance. Let that sink in.

I feel a fiduciary duty lawsuit coming on. #ABLeg