Ontario Chamber of Commerce calls for provincial government to help businesses transition to ORPP

The Ontario Chamber of Commerce says the province’s businesses will require offset measures to help transition towards the new Ontario Retirement Pension Plan.

The 60,000-member business lobby said inside a release Tuesday that the new ORPP increases costs for employers, even if existing offset measures are taken into account. Those measures include  a decrease in Employment Insurance (EI) and Workplace and Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) premiums.

The Chamber’s report found that without additional offsets, the typical business can expect to incur $306 a year in extra costs for a worker making $30,000 annually and $554 for a worker making $50,000 annually.

“Our objective would be to be sure that the ORPP doesn’t weaken Ontario’s economic recovery,” said Allan O’Dette, president and chief exec of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce. “The government projects the ORPP will provide economic benefits to Ontario over the long-term. Within the short-term, however, the program will set new costs on employers at any given time when their cost is already rising because of increasing electricity rates and weakened purchasing power.”

The idea of an Ontario Retirement Pension Plan was first floated by the provincial Liberal Party in late 2013, eventually becoming a major policy plank of Premier Kathleen Wynne’s government. Information on the new pension scheme were unveiled last summer.

The ORPP’s goal is to provide additional financial to safeguard Ontario workers when they retire along with what is already paid through the Canadian Type of pension, especially being an growth of the second was rejected underneath the former government of Stephen Harper.

But another provincial pension plan originates under fire by businesses who state that their costs goes up substantially consequently. The Chamber said Tuesday that several measures could make the program work while offloading the expense of the ORPP.

Those measures include targeted tax relief, electricity rate reductions in price for businesses, greater local economic development funding and transition support for smaller businesses. The Chamber also called for modernized private sector pension solvency rules for employers that offer defined benefit pension plans.

The OCC noted that provincial governments have made similar accommodations for businesses previously, like a number of tax cuts that have been announced in 2009 ahead of implementation from the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST).