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“It’s certainly not good news and it’s going to do a lot of damage to small businesses,” he said.

“It is one small silver lining that this has been pushed out to 2019 and will be rolled out over five years. But having said that, there’s still going to be a big impact on small business.”

Alberta Finance Minister Joe Ceci said Tuesday that Alberta’s support for the CPP deal agreed to this week was contingent on the later phase-in date.

Alberta’s NDP government has been open to beefing up CPP since it took office last year.

But Ceci said in an interview that he had been sensitive to the potential economic impact of a CPP hike going into talks with federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau and his provincial counterparts on Monday.

Photo by Ed Kaiser / Postmedia Network

“My over-riding view, of course, is that Alberta’s economy is quite fragile and I brought that view to the table and said that expansion of this program needs to take place when Alberta’s economy is projected to rebound and not before,” said Ceci.

“I indicated that the 2019 time-frame was something that would work for the expansion.”

Alberta’s economy has been battered by low oil prices, with the province expecting two straight years of recession until growth resumes next year.

The deal between the federal government and eight of 10 provinces — only Quebec and Manitoba didn’t sign on — is intended to eventually increase contributions and retirement benefits through the public plan.

The changes will be phased in over seven years, beginning on Jan. 1, 2019. They include increasing the income replacement rate to one-third from one-quarter, meaning the maximum CPP benefit will be about $17,478 instead of about $13,000.