After details for the proposed Ontario Retirement Pension Plan (ORPP) were revealed Tuesday, Wynne said something has to be done for the two-thirds of workers in the province who don’t have a workplace pension.
“I believe it is the right thing to do,” Wynne said of the plan, noting that two our of three Ontario workers have no pension plan other than the Canada Pension Plan (CPP), which she says is just not enough at an average of $6,900 a year.
Her biggest critic, federal Conservative Leader Stephen Harper, who was campaigning in the GTA, said the proposed pension plan was a job-killing tax.
“That’s a huge tax hike. It’s not a good idea. It’s a bad thing for the middle class and it’s obviously a bad thing as well for jobs. And it’s a bad thing for our economy,” said Harper in Markham.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business, representing small- and medium-sized business, is also fiercely critical of the Ontario pension plan, predicting it will result in job loss.
Wynne acknowledged the missing piece remains how much it could cost to create the ORPP.
But she said she is determined to ignore the critics and push ahead on the plan that would see all Ontario employees belong to a workplace pension plan of one kind or another in five years.
Companies that already have comparable workplace pension plans will be exempt from the ORPP, which is to be phased in by 2020. Like the Canada Pension Plan, the ORPP would be equally funded by both employers and employee — 1.9 per cent from each.
ORPP details show that a person making $45,000 a year will pay $2.16 a day. It will go up to $4.50 a day for someone making the maximum of $90,000 annually.
The plan, according to a Liberal government release, will be fully implemented by 2020 and affect about 3.5 million in Ontario, with benefits starting to be paid out two years later. Participants must be 65 or older before they can collect.
According to the ORPP details, a person making $45,000 a year for 40 years will receive $6,410 a year for life, compared to $12,815 a year for life for the top $90,000 earners — equal to about a 15 per cent return after four decades.
If approved, the ORPP would begin in 2017 with large-size employers — 500 or more employees — without registered workplace pension plans. Medium-size employers with 50 to 499 employees without registered workplace pension plans would start to contribute in 2018. The plan will not include small-size employers until 2019.
Harper has refused to increase CPP benefits as requested by several provincial leaders; he has also has decided the federal government will not administer the plan for Ontario.
He said he was “delighted” his government’s refusal to co-operate with the plan is making it harder for the Ontario government to implement the program.
Wynne said Harper, whose federal pension would be about $140,000 a year, has decided there isn’t a need across Canada for supplementary provincial pension plans “and is now standing in the way of trying to help us implement this plan.”
Federal Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau has said if his party were to form a government it will look at expanding the CPP, along the lines of what Wynne is suggesting.
Harper was not alone in his condemnation of the ORPP, which would be phased in over the next five years for firms that don’t have a pension plan at all, or one that is not comparable to the ORPP. Business leaders say many companies simply can’t afford it and that if it is forced on them it could mean layoffs.
“I have to make it clear that most small- and medium-size businesses don’t have a pension plan right now, not because they don’t want to have one, it’s because they can’t afford it. And I think that is a point this government has missed since the very beginning of this conversation,” said Plamen Petkov, CFIB’s Ontario vice-president.
Petkov said employers will be left with having to leave the province altogether or reduce staff in order to cover their pension contributions.
Progressive Conservative MPP Julia Munro said people are going to lose their jobs because of this pension plan.
“Small businesses in particular will be forced to reduce their staff to compensate for the mandatory contribution of nearly 4 per cent (in total) from each employer and employee,” Munro said, who further criticized the government for not producing a cost/benefit analysis.
Allan O’Dette, president and CEO of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, said the OCC remains concerned the ORPP in its current form “will have a negative impact on business competitiveness.”
Sid Ryan, president of the Ontario Federation of Labour, said the fact the ORPP is not going to be universal — unlike the CPP — will cause no end of problems, including driving up the cost of administration.
“The magic of the CPP is that it is universal — all workers are covered — and as a result of that you have low administration costs. What was announced today is a mish-mash of that,” he told reporters.
Meanwhile, the Canadian Labour Congress is calling for a doubling of the CPP benefits.
By the numbers
— With files from Bruce Campion-Smith
For the 3.5 million workers expected to participate in the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan:
An employee making $45,000 a year will contribute $2.16 a day or $788.40 a year.
An employee paid $70,000 a year will contribute $3.46 a day or $1,262.90 a year.
An employee earning the maximum of 90,000 annually will shell out $4.50 a day or $1,642.50 annually.
Payouts after 40 years:
An employee making $45,000 a year would receive $6,410 a year for life.
An employee with a salary of $70,000 a year would receive $9,970 a year for life.
An employee making $90,000 a year would receive $12,815 a year for life.
When fully implemented the ORPP would bring in about $3.5 billion annually.
Source: thestar.com/
Author: Richard J. Brennan
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