Ontario pension plan proposal raises skepticism among voters

The Ontario Liberals are asking voters to think about their retirement when they make a decision on election day next month.

The party is promising to create a pension plan for people who don't have one — but the opposition parties and some voters are skeptical.

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The new Ontario Registered pension plan would see workers without a company plan contribute along with their employer, similar to the federal Canada Pension Plan.

The Liberals are proposing it. The New Democrats say the Liberals stole the idea from them. And the Conservatives call it a job-killing tax.

And 35-year-old Chantel Dupuis, a single mother of two in Sudbury, said she's not sure.

The administrative assistant, who doesn't have an office pension, said it would help her. But she once owned a house-cleaning business and said she can see how the plan would hurt entrepreneurs.

"[It’s] good for the employee, maybe not so good for the small employer."

Bad for business?

Financial planner Roland Lavoie, who's with Investment Planning Counsel in Sudbury, said the principle of the government's plan is solid.

"I think their approach is very wise. It's the same thing most professional advisors always tell their clients. ‘Pay yourself first’,” he said.

But Lavoie said most people would be better off setting up their own retirement fund, rather than relying on another government pension plan.

The proposed Ontario pension plan would require workers who don't have a company pension to chip in 1.9 per cent of their paycheques, an amount their employers would match.

But Mark Wieman, past chair with the Sudbury Chamber of Commerce, said the plan will be bad for businesses and consumers.

"Customers could be paying more, [and] businesses could have less money to reinvest into their businesses and grow,” he said. “Individuals could have less money in their pocket because they have to contribute that 1.9 per cent."

The Conservatives agree with Wieman and call the pension plan "a tax" on small businesses.

The New Democrats agree with the idea, but doubt the Liberals will follow through if they stay in government.

However, during the NDP platform launch on Thursday, plans for a made-in-Ontario pension were missing. 

Ontario party leader Andrea Horwath said the NDP supports the idea in principle but said she wants to see what happens in the 2015 federal election before committing provincial dollars to it.

"We may actually get a federal government that will take pension plans seriously," said Horwath. "We are the party that first began to talk about pension security for Ontarians."