Calgary demonstrators urge the UCP to keep their ‘Hands off our CPP’

A protest at city hall Saturday had this message for the UCP government: Keep Alberta in the Canada Pension Plan.

A few dozen members of Save Alberta’s Future for Everyone attended the event. It's a grassroots group that was formed in Calgary in March by a group of senior women outraged by Premier Danielle Smith and the UCP government’s plan to exit the CPP.

“We're here because we want to make publicly aware that Danielle Smith is putting our retirement in jeopardy, and we're not going to stand for it,” says Annette Lengyel with Save Alberta’s Future for Everyone.

“We want to get the message to Danielle Smith. She's not listening to our voice and so we want to be heard,” she says.

The UCP government has been gathering feedback from Albertans on the idea.

Smith has said there would be no referendum on whether Alberta would leave the Canada Pension Plan without a firm number on how much the province would get.

Polls have shown the majority of Albertans are opposed to exiting the CPP, and many at the rally worry the issue will fall off the radar and it’s important to keep the issue top of mind.

“It's a guarantee of our secure retirement. We've worked here our whole life. We've paid into this social security insurance policy for us, for our retirement, for a secure and dignified retirement as pensioners,” says Lengyel.

Similar rallies were expected to take place in Medicine Hat and Edmonton this weekend.