John Bolton - April 23, 2026


Your Money in an Independent Alberta — Dennis Kalma Explains What Happens

Topics
independence and RRIF tax implications homework and investments
Hosted by
John Bolton
Mentioned
Dennis Kalma Stay Free Alberta Jeff Rath John
Carney - Mr. All Talk No Action - His Latest Smokescreen - The CUSMA Committee The Independence Petition - The Story Of The Most Unlikely Location

Episode Stats


Length

13 minutes

Words per minute

188.35

Word count

2,524

Sentence count

125

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged

Toxicity

3

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Join me and my friend, Dennis Kalma, as he answers a question sent in by a woman named Kim, who is worried about her investments if Alberta votes "yes" in a referendum on separation from Canada.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 hi it's john and welcome to the channel great to have you along today here with the big blue
00:00:07.720 mug of coffee which just disappears while i have this screen in behind me but it's terrific to have
00:00:14.840 you here and i think we have got an interesting and a perplexing um question today although i
00:00:21.000 think we will get the answer because we have the man you see on the screen right now and this is
00:00:25.120 my friend, Dennis Kalma, who wrote this document, which hides as well. It's called The Value of
00:00:30.460 Freedom, hiding in the screen as well. He wrote this along with Jeff Rath. And Dennis, it's a
00:00:35.520 pleasure to see you again and talk to you. Thanks for doing this today. More than welcome. Happy
00:00:40.560 to do it. So here's the thing. I have an email address. I have people send me pictures of the
00:00:45.760 independence movement. I do this for my independence calendar on the weekends. But people
00:00:49.360 often write me letters. By the way, if you'd like to send something to me, johnboltonab at
00:00:54.520 gmail.com. But people do ask me questions and I do my very best to answer them. But I am no expert
00:01:00.280 when it comes to investments. And some of these things, I can't answer them. The woman that got
00:01:04.340 in touch with me last weekend is named Kim. And she's got a problem here. And I really don't know 1.00
00:01:09.540 a heck of a lot about investments. And I thought, well, maybe I'll get Dennis on here. And she
00:01:13.940 seemed rather pleased that I was reaching out to you. So let me read you a little bit of her letter.
00:01:19.060 And I'm sure other people feel the same way about this. And honestly, being somebody who has some
00:01:23.620 investments. I'm concerned about this as well. What is going to happen if we vote yes in a
00:01:29.580 referendum? What's going to happen to the economy and are our investments, are they in jeopardy
00:01:36.080 here? So let me read a bit of this to you. First off, she says she supports the independence
00:01:39.340 movement. She has signed the petition. She has donated. She thanks us for what we're doing,
00:01:44.260 Dennis, but we would like to thank Kim for doing those things because you're doing your part as
00:01:47.660 welcome. But she says this, I do, however, have a seemingly insurmountable issue with independence.
00:01:55.060 I have read the value of freedom and cannot find this problem addressed anywhere. My problem is my
00:02:01.080 RRIF, which is a registered retirement investment fund, if I remember correctly. I was a single mom
00:02:07.780 from the time my son was two, so it was no easy feat to build up my RSP while still providing the
00:02:13.200 best I could for him. I have since converted my RSP to an RRIF, and as I have no other pension
00:02:20.300 money, this is my retirement fund. The money I have contributed to this over the years resulted
00:02:25.320 in tax deductions through RSP contribution deduction, and I know the federal government
00:02:30.640 won't let this go. Through Google research, I have found out that it is likely that RSPs and
00:02:36.820 RRIFs will be considered deregistered upon successful independence, triggering crippling
00:02:42.540 tax implications. She goes on to say that she hopes that the Alberta Prosperity Project
00:02:49.240 has considered this, but if not, it would be the only reason she would vote no, which would break
00:02:53.760 her heart. I think I've been with you when people have asked questions about this, maybe not this
00:02:58.860 particular thing, but what are your thoughts on this, Dennis? Yeah, well, a couple of things.
00:03:03.820 We always go back to the point that there are many, many Canadians living abroad
00:03:08.460 permanently like permanent residents i have a friend used to live up the street from me he's
00:03:13.080 now in italy um who collect oas cpp have rifs and so forth all fine there is no issue now he's in
00:03:24.680 italy and we would be in independent alberta and so there needs to be some sort of tax treaty
00:03:29.940 between the rest of canada and alberta set up just like there is for italy and the netherlands
00:03:35.460 united states and virtually every country in the world and that governs essentially for investments
00:03:40.900 held in canada and you extract your money out of your rif what is the tax arrangement so canada says
00:03:49.620 we want to withhold some tax that was uh let's say let's say withhold 10 and then it comes to
00:03:56.340 italy the other side of the tax treaty says oh okay that's already been taxed by canada
00:04:02.200 So we won't tax it again here in Italy.
00:04:05.380 It's now tax paid.
00:04:07.580 And that's exactly what happens with this guy that now is in Italy.
00:04:11.460 So we would have a similar tax arrangement with Canada.
00:04:16.700 They would not deregister RSPs.
00:04:19.520 They would not deregister RIS.
00:04:22.360 That is not something that would make any sense.
00:04:25.560 It would be totally inconsistent with what they're doing all over the world for many, many years.
00:04:30.060 what they would do is say let's make a deal how much money shall we withhold then of course in
00:04:35.900 the alberta side what do we do with the funds that come in via that that method and i think
00:04:40.740 we'd end up with insisting you know most favored nation status i mean we're still a part of their
00:04:47.160 economy because you provide them with oil and so forth so we'd say okay yeah you're going to pay
00:04:52.540 15 withholding tax in canada comes to alberta it's tax-free you're done that's it
00:04:59.160 that's it so what i what i hear about um this vote and i've heard said before is that on
00:05:07.380 a successful vote on independence alberta that the dollar would basically tank
00:05:12.440 yeah would that have anything would that have any effect on somebody's um rsp or rrif as kim
00:05:19.860 is talking about here is that going to cause any issues with that and lose them any money
00:05:23.540 Well, I mean, it depends what it's invested in. If you buy a whole bunch of Ontario based car manufacturer stocks, I think that those stocks are going to go down. If you buy a bunch of good Alberta company stocks and businesses, I think those stocks are going to go up. You buy the American stuff, you buy Microsoft or whatever the heck you want, SpaceX for that matter. Those stocks will remain relatively constant.
00:05:51.380 so my advice consistently not just me but others as well right is where you have control of where
00:05:58.280 your funds are invested as much as you can move them now into uh u.s dollar dominated securities
00:06:06.320 so for example you can buy i'm pretty sure you can buy microsoft and canadian dollars or you can
00:06:11.860 buy it in u.s dollars okay i see yeah yeah and and and so buy those stocks that are going to be
00:06:17.940 outside of Canada and they should be pretty stable. Having said that, yeah, if you've got
00:06:22.780 investments, I think the Canadian dollar will tank. The exchange rate will not be good for us.
00:06:29.280 I think for a while, that's why we're switching to the U.S. dollar as our currency once we become
00:06:34.200 independent. So, I mean, there will be some impact for sure. When you're invested in an RRSP, you can
00:06:40.400 be invested in a lot of different companies, right? And you can pick and choose what you want
00:06:45.200 to invest in um so you'd be looking at an rsp for instance and saying okay where's my money well i
00:06:50.500 got a lot of that in companies in ontario or the rest of canada so you may want to move to something
00:06:55.860 else which would be more likely in the united states would that be correct yeah outside of
00:07:01.840 canada would be what i would say okay so now for kim herself and other people who are in the same
00:07:06.900 situation what would you do if you were kim well first of all check and see um which institution
00:07:13.400 you're at and see what the rules are there i presume it's going to be continued to be paid in
00:07:17.400 u.s in canadian dollars which would make sense so but if you have some chance to move the underlying
00:07:23.720 investment into a non-canadian um stock or or or fund do that the second thing to note and this
00:07:34.040 is something we've brought up before is we know we will have to protect albertans from the drop
00:07:41.960 in exchange rate so let's say we're trading right now at 75 cents us to the uh the canadian cents to
00:07:50.360 the us dollar um and it drops to 50 cents well obviously that hits uh kim pretty hard right but
00:07:57.880 the alberta government and we would have the cash to do this would have to would provide
00:08:02.840 a currency support saying yeah we know the official exchange rate is 50 cents to the dollar
00:08:07.400 but we will actually give you 75 cents on the dollar.
00:08:11.160 So you take, you know, you're 75 cents Canadian,
00:08:14.860 you get one U.S. dollar just like before,
00:08:17.500 whatever the exchange rate is of the day.
00:08:19.480 And that level of support would have to be continued
00:08:21.700 for a time until we stay balanced.
00:08:24.420 Okay, so let me ask you this.
00:08:26.000 Now we're looking at the best case scenario here.
00:08:28.240 Certainly if everything works out the way we say it is,
00:08:30.960 you know, people are a little bit worried
00:08:32.720 of what the federal government might do if we do this.
00:08:34.960 So how assured are we that they would actually, I guess, negotiate with us in good faith on something like this?
00:08:44.300 Well, people forget we've got a lot of leverage.
00:08:49.880 Yes.
00:08:50.200 They sort of assume immediately that, oh, well, we're going to be beholden, cap in hand, going to the Canadians.
00:08:57.300 That's not true.
00:08:58.380 We provide a whole lot of their energy.
00:09:00.640 We could start tariff and taxing that if we wanted to.
00:09:03.680 They face higher prices.
00:09:04.960 their trains and car and trucks roll through alberta you start tariffing and taxing that 0.99
00:09:10.680 so there's there's weapons that could be used if canada got stupid rather not but you could 0.87
00:09:16.280 yeah the second so go ahead john no you go ahead no go ahead please finish yeah the second aspect 0.96
00:09:22.040 that that i believe is that yeah there'll be hot tempers probably the day after the referendum
00:09:28.040 but pretty quickly canada is going to realize number one alberta is leaving
00:09:32.620 number two they are in a deep economic mess now they lost their economic engine
00:09:38.500 and it will be in their interest to play nice and play fast to get this their affairs in order
00:09:46.100 because the uncertainty will be what kills everything but what's going to happen will
00:09:52.780 they actually leave what will the terms be that's going to be very bad for them worse than for us
00:09:58.540 and won't be good for us either to be fair so you're i'm sorry go ahead yeah so everyone will
00:10:04.540 be very interested in coming to i think relatively relatively rapid conclusion i think it'll be less
00:10:10.180 than a year okay yeah so you're thinking that issues might be more difficult for people who
00:10:15.940 are living in canada than in alberta after this yeah you do well well because their bonds are
00:10:22.480 going to get repriced now they lost their economic engine yeah the the money we send there that how
00:10:27.740 do they replace that and and i have family there so i want to give them what's coming as well we
00:10:33.680 have to really think about that don't we so so as far as kim goes you're telling kim that she should
00:10:39.300 relax and she can vote yes for alberta independence you're you're confident that that's an okay thing
00:10:44.880 for her to do as long as she follows along with what you suggested here and maybe talk to her
00:10:49.220 financial advisor or go to her bank to discuss this yes well and and you can tell her too i
00:10:54.900 collect CPP and OAS. I have RIFs. I know exactly what she's talking about. I've done my homework.
00:11:00.980 I have no worries on this score. Okay. So I want to ask you why I've got you here. You've been out,
00:11:07.060 I've been out at some of the events you've been at. You get asked some of these questions and
00:11:10.580 I think you're just an amazing person to have out at the different
00:11:15.000 events for Stay Free Alberta. And as we move ahead here, what are the other questions you're
00:11:20.340 hearing regarding investments and things like this, or are they of a similar vein to what Kim was
00:11:25.480 talking about? The biggest one is always pensions. That's the one that comes up the most. So we've
00:11:31.700 gone through all of that. The second thing you get concerned about is the actual transition process,
00:11:39.340 and that's not financial, but it's the thing we just mentioned about what happens to the money,
00:11:44.560 what happens to this, what happens to that. So there is some movement afoot soon to be announced
00:11:49.620 on pulling together a transition plan and I've been asked to help out where I can. So that will
00:11:57.600 address that question. Great. And that's everything from what happens to the tax laws, what happens
00:12:04.340 to the criminal code, that kind of stuff. Yeah. And it's all a negotiating thing. It's written
00:12:09.260 out in the Clarity Act that once this happens, we have to negotiate with Canada, we have to
00:12:12.700 negotiate with Indigenous people. We're going to have to work together here. And like you said,
00:12:16.900 We still have to live with each other after all of this.
00:12:19.380 Canada will still be there.
00:12:20.220 We'll still have friends there.
00:12:21.260 We're going to still be selling them things.
00:12:23.040 And hopefully, they'll be selling us things as well.
00:12:27.340 So people, basically, do your homework on this.
00:12:29.920 I think that's important to let people know because there's going to be a lot of these
00:12:33.160 questions and similar questions to this.
00:12:35.860 And if you do your homework, you should be okay.
00:12:38.960 Yes, exactly.
00:12:39.640 I mean, just look at your finances.
00:12:43.620 Imagine what's going to happen if the Canadian dollar drops.
00:12:47.220 Look at the things you can do to adjust it.
00:12:49.520 Okay.
00:12:50.040 Well, let's end it there, but we have to have you back on again in the future.
00:12:53.940 I wanted to answer Kim's question because I've heard this before and I never know how
00:12:57.580 to answer this, but now I do because of you.
00:13:00.120 So, Dennis, thanks so much for this.
00:13:01.460 I really appreciate it.
00:13:02.480 Hope to see you again real soon.
00:13:03.920 And thanks for being on the channel.
00:13:05.900 Thanks again and talk to you always, John.
00:13:08.080 Okay.
00:13:08.580 And if you like this video, please give it a thumbs up.
00:13:10.620 Share it around as well.
00:13:11.460 If you've got people in your family who are concerned about this, pass it along.
00:13:15.500 Give them some reassurance that there's not very much to worry about here.
00:13:19.080 As long as you do your homework and take Dennis's advice, I'll see you in the next one.