Open in full screen mode Alberta is waiting for the Canada's chief actuary presents him with a federal estimate of the share of the federal retirement fund that would go to Alberta, which he will do in the fall. Radio-Canada Voice synthesis, based on artificial intelligence, makes it possible to generate spoken text from a written text. About 57% of Albertans surveyed say they are opposed to the plan for an Alberta-specific pension plan, according to data from a new poll conducted by the firm Léger on behalf of a research project at the University of Alberta. Only 22% of respondents said they approved of the idea, while 20% chose to take a mostly neutral stance. Jared Wesley, the director of Common Ground project and political science professor, comments on the data: Overall support for an Alberta pension plan has declined since our last poll six months ago; support fell by about six percentage points. What's really interesting is that opinions on the pension plan are strongly determined by the person's partisan identification. A quote from Jared Wesley, director of the project for which the poll was conducted Jared Wesley adds that the poll results show that the provincial government tends to take policy measures that are popular with members of its political party, the United Conservative Party (UCP), with the exception of the pension plan. The survey was conducted online by Common Ground, a research project at the University of Alberta, between January 22 and February 25 with a sample of 1,213 respondents. The survey does not indicate the margin of error. Since the online survey did not use a probability-based random sampling method, it is not possible to calculate a margin of error, specifies the project director. Although CERB supporters are more supportive of a provincial pension plan, figures show that only 36% of them agree that it would be better than the Canada Pension Plan (CPP). , compared to 4% of opposition NDP supporters. United Conservatives strongly oppose abandonment of the Regime of Canada's pensions and, yet, the government persists in wanting to move forward, notes Jared Wesley. Loading ELSEWHERE ON INFO: Snow, tears, music and anecdotes for a last goodbye to Brian MulroneyLoading
Snow, tears, music and anecdotes for a last goodbye to Brian Mulroney
Snow, tears, music and anecdotes for a last goodbye to Brian Mulroney
ELSEWHERE ON INFO: Snow, tears, music and anecdotes for a last goodbye to Brian Mulroney
In September 2023, the provincial government published a report that it had ordered, according to which Albertans would be entitled to more than $330 billion in pension contributions if Alberta opted out of the CPP. Critics have called this calculation exaggerated.
Alberta Finance Minister Nate Horner said in February that he had been informed that Canada's chief actuary planned to present a federal estimate in the fall of how much would be to Alberta in the federal pension plan.
The policy proposed by Prime Minister Danielle Smith would notably ban puberty blockers and hormonal therapies for young people aged 15 or under.
The survey results also show that 56% of respondents want schools to require parental consent for students aged 15 or younger to use a name or pronoun other than the one they are assigned to at school. was given at birth.
Based on this, the majority of respondents would support the bill announced by Prime Minister Danielle Smith in February, compared to 30 % of respondents who would oppose it.
Nearly 85 percent of PCU supporters surveyed favor the policy. Supporters of the New Democratic Party (NDP) in Alberta are, for their part, less inclined to support the parental consent requirement: almost 25% of them are in favor.
According to the survey, the number of people who have not yet made up their minds on the issue is decreasing.
The policy proposed by Premier Danielle Smith would also ban minors aged 17 and under from undergoing gender-affirming surgeries. Puberty blockers and hormonal therapies would also not be allowed for children aged 15 or younger.
Lisa Young, professor of political science at the University of Calgary, is not part of the Common Ground team. She says these results confirm previous research on these issues.
When it comes to pensions, Lisa Young says it's possible that the provincial government is reassured by noting that some PCU supporters agree with the proposal, but not the majority. None of this feels like a victory to me.
With information from Brendan Coulter and Karina Zapata