Business owners strongly oppose the ORPP

Seven in 10 Ontario business owners say the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan (ORPP) would force them to freeze salaries, reports CFIB.

“Ontario’s small business owners stand firmly against this job-killing pension tax, with 90% opposing the ORPP,” says Plamen Petkov, CFIB’s Ontario vice president. “More than half reported they would have to eliminate positions to deal with the added costs. Yet, these consequences continue to fall on deaf ears. It appears the government doesn’t really care about the economic damage being done.”

Read: Scrap ORPP, but expand CPP, says Mintz

Once fully implemented, the ORPP will require every Ontarian without a workplace pension plan to pay up to $1,643 in mandatory pension premiums every year. Employers will have to match the contribution amount for each of their employees.

CFIB estimates the ORPP will increase Ontario’s unemployment rate by 0.5% by 2020, and reduce wages in the longer term. In addition, it will take 40 years for contributors to receive maximum benefits, so those hoping to collect the full ORPP pension will have to wait until 2057 at the earliest.

“With opposition to the ORPP growing, the province continues to push Ontarians to a place where they just don’t want to go,” adds Petkov. “Most alarming, the province has already set up plans to increase future rates, and appears to have shifted to make the ORPP its first choice, trumping even the CPP expansion discussions that are now taking place at the national level.”

Read: Some companies may be exempt from new Ontario pension rules

Petkov notes, “Today, the government acknowledged that retirees will not benefit whatsoever from the new plan, and the near retirees will also get next-to-nothing in enhanced retirement benefits. All future government communications on the ORPP need to do the responsible thing and make that clear so Ontarians understand the impact of the plan being put before them.”

Staff

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