Expanding the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and establishing an Ontario pension plan are key for fixing the province’s retirement income crisis and boosting its economy, according to Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne.
“People in this province should not find that their reward for a lifetime of hard work is to be faced with financial insecurity the moment they retire,” she said at the annual Heritage Dinner. “And yet, that is a very real possibility for far too many of today’s working Ontarians.”
Wynne added that many Ontarians are questioning whether they ever can retire.
Pointing to the decline of company pension plans and the shift from DB to DC arrangements as the reason for the current “pension income crisis,” she warned that if the problem is not solved, it “could easily undermine our long-term recovery.”
The solution, she argued, is expanding the CPP. “But Stephen Harper has an ideological aversion to the CPP, so there is no federal leadership in this area.”
Eventually, Canada as a whole might decide to expand the CPP, but in the meantime, Ontario should go at it alone, she said. “We will create an Ontario pension plan to create security for people in retirement.”
The premier also blasted the federal government for its overall approach to the budget.
“In our view, the federal government remains inordinately focused on building a surplus it can dispense for political advantage and not nearly focused enough on investing now in a prosperous future.”
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