Liberals Job-Killing Payroll Tax Full Steam Ahead

QUEEN’S PARK – The ill-conceived Ontario Retirement Pension Plan is moving full steam ahead, to be introduced beginning January 1, 2017. This mandatory payroll tax will further erode business competitiveness, reduce the take-home pay of workers, and kill thousands of jobs. In fact, an internal Ministry of Finance document estimates that Ontario will lose 54,000 jobs with $6 billion collected by the ORPP.

“This job killing payroll tax hinders the ability of the private sector to do what it does best- provide job opportunities for people and strengthen our economy to attract investment,” said Ontario PC Critic for the ORPP Julia Munro (MPP for York-Simcoe). “Businesses today have an additional concern: the government has the power to deem any company’s pension plan as comparable or not. This power creates further concern within the business community as to the impending effect of the ORPP.”
With only 11 months left until implementation, many employers still have not been contacted about whether they are exempt from the ORPP, and employees have no certainty if their take-home pay will be reduced.
Ontario businesses and families at least deserve transparency about if they’ll be exempt or not. I worry that when added to the ever rising hydro rates and taxes, hardworking Ontario families won’t be able to afford the ORPP,” Munro continued. “This mandatory pension plan will kill jobs in Ontario. And, as we all know, it is impossible to save for retirement when you don’t have a job. In effect this will be a 1.9% payroll tax for employers, with no break, and a 1.9% paycheck deduction for employees that will further stress household finances.”
The Liberal government needs to walk away from the ORPP. Business groups across Ontario, including the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, the Canadian Manufactures and Exporters, and the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, to name just a few, have warned the Liberals about the dangers of implementing the ORPP and job losses that will result from the new pension plan.
“In moving ahead so quickly this government is failing Ontarians,” Munro added.