Phillips says government hiding results of pension plan survey

By Alejandra Pulido Guzman
Southern Alberta Newspapers

Shannon Phillips, Lethbridge MLA and NDP finance critic for insurance and pensions, is speaking out about a member of the media being denied access to the government’s pension plan survey results.

During a phone interview with Southern Alberta Newspapers earlier this month, Phillips said the government refusal to release the survey results sends a clear message.

“I think it’s very clear that the survey showed the government that Albertans do not want to give their retirement savings to Danielle Smith to gamble with, and yet the government wants to continue with their plan anyway,” said Phillips.

She said it’s obvious the government is committed to lying to Albertans, withholding information, and committed to taking away Alberta’s Canadian Pension Plan (CPP).

“However, if they do move forward with a referendum Albertans will have the opportunity to be heard definitively. Albertans do not want to leave the CPP.”

Phillips said she has spent many hours with hundreds of Albertans in southern Alberta NDP town hall meetings, where they took time from their busy schedules to say they want to stay in the CPP.

“The response has been overwhelming, and I am quite certain that the response to the government survey has been overwhelmingly opposed to Daniel Smith’s and that is why the government is withholding the survey results from Albertans.”

She suggests that if the survey results were in favour of Danielle Smith’s plan, the government would release them.

“The fact that they’re not, tells me everything that I need to know.”

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