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Alberta workers are overpaying for their pensions—by a lot—and Ottawa would prefer you just shut up about it.

A new report from the Fraser Institute lays it out, and the numbers are infuriating. According to their analysis, if Alberta ditched the Canada Pension Plan and ran its own Alberta Pension Plan, workers here could pay less and retire richer.

Not a little richer—a lot.

The current CPP contribution rate is 9.9%. But Alberta, with its younger population, higher employment rate, and higher wages, could fund the same benefits with a contribution rate as low as 5.85%. That’s almost four full points less.

And if you invested the savings? Let’s say you’re a median-income earner making just over $53,000 a year.

If Alberta pulled out of CPP and you stuck those savings in an RRSP or TFSA every year until you hit 65, your total retirement income could end up being $454,741.

Know what you’d get if we stay in the CPP? $264,968. That’s a 71.6% increase if we went our own way.

Still not convinced? Let’s say we play it conservative and contribute more—say, 8.21%, still less than the CPP’s 9.9%. 

You’d still come out ahead. That same Albertan would retire with $329,640—about 24% more than they’d get under the current setup.

And if you’re a max earner pulling in $71,300? The gap is even bigger. With a 5.85% rate, you’d end up with $584,235—67% more than what the CPP gives you. Even at the higher contribution rate, you’d still be nearly $80,000 ahead.

This isn’t fantasy. This is what the math says.

Now, the Fraser Institute isn’t saying this would be easy. 

The authors of this study point out that Alberta would need to account for portability, administrative costs, how to split assets from CPP, and all the rest. 

Fine. But none of that changes the core reality: Albertans are paying Cadillac prices for a Camry pension plan, and it’s time to ask why.

We’re subsidizing the rest of the country—again. Just like equalization. Just like federal infrastructure spending. We pay more. We get less. And when we raise a fuss about it, the Laurentian elites tell us to sit down and be quiet for the good of the federation.

Well maybe it’s time we got a little louder.

Because the choice is simple: keep feeding Ottawa’s pension machine, or do we build something better—for less—right here in Alberta.

The numbers speak for themselves.