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EDMONTON — Albertan workers contribute far more to the Canada Pension Plan than its retirees take out, says a new Fraser Institute study, suggesting the rest of the country benefits greatly from the prosperity in Wild Rose Country.

The report comes at a time when Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party is planning, if it wins the election on April 16, to pick a fight over equalization payments, another federal program to which Albertans contribute disproportionately.

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Unlike equalization, though, provinces can opt out of participation in the CPP; Quebec already has.

In 2017, 16.5 per cent of all CPP contributions came from Alberta workers, while just 10.6 per cent of CPP expenditures made their way back to the province. The difference between what was paid in and paid out was $2.9 billion in 2017, the most recent year for which data are available. (Alberta paid in $8.1 billion and received $5.2 billion.) Between 2008 and 2017, Albertans have contributed $27.9 billion more to CPP than retirees in the province have received back.