By Pepper Parr
June 21st , 2016
BURLINGTON, ON
Well, this could be awkward.
Burlington now has two Cabinet Ministers – a week ago we didn’t have one.
Eleanor McMahon (Burlington) was made Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport and Indira Naidoo-Harris, (Halton) Associate Minister of Finance, whose task it was to shepherd the planned Ontario Pension Plan into being.
Yesterday the Ontario Minister of Finance announced that the province would abandon their plans for Ontario Retirement Pension Plan – what then does the Ms Naidoo-Harris have in the way of a job?
There is considerable controversy around whether or not pension plans actually need radical changes – the Conservatives certainly don’t think so.
Milton MP Lisa Raitt was very vocal last week with her views on pension changes.
Charles Sousa, Ontario Minister of Finance said in a statement: “There is an emerging retirement income challenge in Canada, and in Ontario. Workplace pensions are becoming less common and less adequate. Two-thirds of Ontario workers don’t have access to a workplace pension plan, and only one in four younger workers — aged 25 to 34 — participate in a workplace pension plan. Too many Ontarians are starting to approach retirement without the pension and savings they need.
“Our government ran on and won a majority mandate on a promise to enhance retirement income security for the people of Ontario. Today has seen a national agreement in principle to enhance the CPP that meets our commitment to hard-working Ontarians.
“Ontario has always favoured a national solution to strengthening retirement security. Since 2013, we have been calling on the federal government to enhance CPP because a national solution provides many benefits to Ontarians, including portability and cost effectiveness, while providing coverage to more people.
Federal and provincial politicians meet in Vancouver – they decided to create a more beneficial pension plan.
“In the absence of a willing or collaborative federal partner at that time, Ontario began establishing the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan (ORPP).
“Ontario’s extensive consultations in developing the ORPP determined that to meet Ontarians’ retirement needs, CPP enhancement would have to be timely and provide a level of adequacy and coverage that reflects the design of the ORPP.
The federal government and enough of the provinces appear to have reached an agreement in principle to expand the Canada Pension Plan today.
So what does Indira Naidoo-Harris do now? Hopefully she didn’t print up to many business cards.
Naidoo-Harris is the member for NAME which includes large parts of rural Burlington.
