A town-hall style event in Okotoks will lay out the potential benefits of an Alberta Pension Plan.
The Alberta First Pension Plan event will be held on Thursday, March 6 at the Elks Club from 6 to 8 p.m.
According to albertafirstpension.ca, organizers want to collect the names and contact information for 300,000 Albertans in a petition that they say would force a referendum on an Alberta Pension Plan.
The speakers billed for the event are Mitch Sylvestre, who has been described as a prominent member of Take Back Alberta and is the president of a northern Alberta UCP constituency association, and Tanner Hnidey, an author and self-described economist who writes about politics, religion, economics and current events on his website.
The organization says it is not affiliated with any political party or lobbyist group.
They say an Alberta Pension Plan would mean a more stable and secure pension for Albertans.
A report commissioned by the Province and released in 2023 suggests Alberta would be entitled to $334 billion from the national pension plan, if it were to withdraw from the CPP.
The has been disputed, with a University of Calgary economist putting the amount that Alberta could hope to receive closer to $120 billion.
A referendum is required before the Province could create an Alberta Pension Plan, and legislation passed by the Alberta government in 2023 says the plan must deliver the same or better benefits for the same or lower contributions.
Polling done by Viewpoint Alberta and shared with CBC News last year suggested that 57 per cent of respondents opposed the creation of a provincial pension plan, while 22 per cent were in support and 20 per cent were neutral.
-with files from Peter Shokeir/Local Journalism Initiative
