Ottawa slammed for refusing to help run Ontario pension plan

Finance minister says many Ontario workers will need help in retirement, noting that Stephen Harper’s ‘gold-plated pension plan’ is secure.

Thestar.com
July 30, 2015
By Rob Ferguson

Ontario’s finance minister is wading into the federal election, accusing the Harper government of “slapping the face of workers” by refusing to help the province start its own pension plan.

“What he’s telling you is ‘fend for yourself,’ but not him, he’s going to have a gold-plated pension plan,” Charles Sousa said Thursday of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, expected to set the campaign in motion this weekend.

“This is a cynical, partisan stunt executed on the eve of a federal election campaign,” added Sousa, urging citizens to vote the Harper Conservatives out of office Oct. 19.

While Ontario signalled its disappointment earlier this month when federal Finance Minister Joe Oliver said Ottawa would not lend administrative help to the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan, Sousa waited until now to unleash more venom.

It included the shot at Harper’s $191,000-a-year pension entitlement and a charge the feds are being “obstructive” given that the Canada Revenue Agency already aids provincial pension plans in Quebec and Saskatchewan.

Ontario’s Liberal government wants the Canada Revenue Agency to help administer the plan - slated to start in January 2017 - helping to keep costs down and provide for higher returns.

The province has said it will set up its own administrative system if necessary, although Premier Kathleen Wynne - who campaigned on the plan in the provincial election last year - would prefer to avoid duplication or have the federal government enhance the Canada Pension Plan to boost retirement incomes instead.

Sousa said the CPP, which provides payments averaging $6,900 a year, isn’t enough to provide for Ontarians in their retirement years unless they have decent pension plans at work - which 65 per cent don’t.

The Conservatives wasted no time replying to Sousa, calling the Ontario pension plan and the contributions it would take from workers and companies a “dangerous scheme” that would kill jobs.

“We’re not going to facilitate this new tax,” said federal Employment Minister Pierre Poilievre. He also labelled it a “Trudeau-Wynne” tax in reference to federal Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau.

“It will be a very big issue in this election,” he predicted.

Under the Ontario plan, workers who do not have company pensions that meet a certain threshold - yet to be determined - and their employers would have to contribute up to $1,643.

Details on which companies and workers would be required to contribute to the plan are still being worked out, with larger companies expected to be enrolled first during a phase-in period.

Given that lack of detail, it’s no wonder the federal government is balking, said Progressive Conservative MPP John Yakabuski (Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke), whose party is also opposed to the plan.

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business and Ontario Chamber of Commerce have warned the pension premiums could force businesses to cut staff to cover the added costs.

“Ontarians have told us they cannot afford to save more for retirement, and yet the provincial government insists on moving forward,” said the CFIB’s president, Dan Kelly.

Wynne has warned many Ontario workers will retire in poverty without enhancements to the CPP or the implementation of the provincial plan.