{"id":6795,"date":"2014-05-28T16:45:23","date_gmt":"2014-05-28T20:45:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=6795"},"modified":"2014-06-04T16:48:18","modified_gmt":"2014-06-04T20:48:18","slug":"pensions-in-the-spotlight-as-provincial-campaign-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/pensions-in-the-spotlight-as-provincial-campaign-continues\/","title":{"rendered":"Pensions in the spotlight as Provincial campaign continues"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Liberal candidate Chris Ballard had some high profile help on the campaign trail last week in former Prime Minister Paul Martin. <\/p>\n

Mr. Martin joined Ballard at the Aurora Shopping Centre to meet local merchants, large and small, to highlight businesses in Downtown Aurora.
\nMartin arrived in Aurora after meeting with Kathleen Wynne to discuss the Liberal Party\u2019s Ontario Retirement Pension Plan. <\/p>\n

After a tour of area shops, Martin and Ballard proceeded up Yonge Street to take in the patriotic mural at the Yonge and Wellington intersection and meet supporters at an area salon. <\/p>\n

A long-time supporter of Aboriginal issues, Mr. Martin walked from Yonge and Wellington to make an impromptu visit to the Aurora Cultural Centre to take in Indiginesse, curated by Newmarket artist Nathalie Bertin, bringing together the diverse voices of Aboriginal, Inuit and Metis women from across Canada.<\/p>\n

But, before the tour wrapped with a visit close to his heart, it was down to the business at hand. <\/p>\n

\u201cI have been very impressed with the advice he has been giving us with regards to the Made in Ontario Pension Plan,\u201d said Ballard of his visitor.
\nSpeaking to The Auroran, Martin said pensions are a Federal-Provincial program and something that has been \u201cleft to fester\u201d over the last two decades. In talks with Ontario\u2019s then-finance minister, Ernie Eves, Mr. Martin said he said something had to be done about it. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Minister said yes, and they responded that this was part of nation-building,\u201d said Mr. Martin. \u201cIt is beyond belief to me that when Kathleen Wynne and other provincial premiers said we want to deal with the Canada Pension Plan and enhance it, the Federal government said no. In terms of nation-building, the Federal Government simply turned its back on the country. It is just really unacceptable. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat Kathleen Wynne has come up with is the Ontario Plan, which is really a superb plan prepared by some of the best minds in the country. As she has said, it is unfortunate that the Federal government would not go along with enhancing the Federal Pension Plan, but what she has done, which no other province has done, is recognize that people today are looking to a retirement on an insufficient amount of money and that it is not fair that somebody should work all their life and then not have a decent retirement. Kathleen Wynne has come up with a program that will make it work.\u201d
\nMr. Martin then set his sights on criticism levelled on the plan by PC leader Tim Hudak.<\/p>\n

\u201cHudak has said this is a tax; it is not a tax,\u201d said Martin. \u201cIt is an investment in your future, just the same way OMRS and any other pension fund is an investment in your future. To say it is a tax is to say mutual funds are a tax. They are not. For him not to recognize that just shows a basic lack of understanding of what pensions are all about. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe second thing is the amount of confidence it gives to the economy. This is going to strengthen the economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE JANE TWINNEY<\/strong><\/p>\n

Progressive Conservative candidate Jane Twinney, however, thinks otherwise and says she agrees with Mr. Hudak. Citing an announcement from Magna International last month that further expansion in Ontario was not on the horizon, she cites this \u201cpension tax\u201d as a contributing factor, along with rising hydro rates.
\n

\"PC

PC candidate Jane Twinney was joined by Frank Klees at the opening of her campaign office last week. Auroran photo by David Falconer<\/p><\/div>
\n\u201cI get CPP taken off, which is fine, it gets put away, but I have my own RRSP, which I am investing for my retirement and I don\u2019t need to have another amount taken off my personal paycheque, which will reduce my paycheque and my disposable income when I am already saving,\u201d says Ms. Twinney. \u201cIf something, God forbid, happens to me, the money I put away is no longer going to be going to my family as well. The Canadian Association of Independent Businesses stated that this payroll tax would cost 160,000 jobs in Ontario. This is something that is of grave concern to myself, and is of concern to the people who are struggling to make ends meet with the money they have at the end of the day in their paycheque.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople perhaps are thinking, \u2018Oh, good, maybe there will be more money to help us get by,\u2019 but the seniors aren\u2019t going to benefit from this plan at all. Obviously the fund would have to be started, have to be managed, there will be more bureaucrats who have to take care of all this and it is just not the right direction to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

From her perspective, a better solution is the PC\u2019s plan proposing a 10 per cent reduction in income tax. That, she said, would help \u201ceverybody right now\u201d and not just \u201ca selected few.\u201d<\/p>\n

That will make sure there is more money at the end of the day in people\u2019s pockets, there will be more disposable income for them to spend, which will help the economy, make ends meet, and have a better life.\u201d<\/p>\n

NDP CANDIDATE ANGUS DUFF<\/strong><\/p>\n

The NDP, on the other hand, have been \u201cfirmly committed\u201d to providing services to pensioners and all Ontarians, but candidate Angus Duff says the Liberals can\u2019t be trusted with delivering.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Liberals can\u2019t manage the pensions they have,\u201d said Mr. Duff. \u201cThey are currently trying to make up the $500 million shortfall in the OPG pension in order to be [able to] pay out rich pensions there, and now the Liberals say they can manage everyone else\u2019s pension. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is ludicrous and mean, playing on those who are struggling in our society. The NDP has a very simple approach instead, let\u2019s help those who are struggling rather than create another financial fiasco.\u201d<\/p>\n

GREEN PARTY CANDIDATE ANDREW ROBLIN<\/strong><\/p>\n

For the Green Party of Ontario, Ottawa should be the catalyst for pension reform with help from the other provinces. A new form of the Guaranteed Income Supplement would also be implemented in Ontario by the Green Party. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis would greatly address the issues low-income seniors face,\u201d says Green candidate Andrew Roblin. \u201cIt would provide a top-up to those making below the low-income cut-off. This will provide for an improved quality of life for our seniors. Additionally, our policy on retrofitting homes to save energy would also help seniors who own their own homes for the things they enjoy the most. A side benefit of the retrofit program would also assist in the health and well-being of seniors who suffer when dealing with extreme temperature changes. Having energy-efficient homes makes it easier to maintain a more consistent temperature environment. <\/p>\n

CANADIANS\u2019 CHOICE PARTY\u2019S DORIAN BAXTER<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr. Baxter says he believes Ontarians can do better than a new Ontario Retirement Pension Plan (ORPP) and has \u201cserious misgivings\u201d about the plan. If the Federal Government \u201clived up\u201d to equalization payments to Ontario, it might be a more feasible solution, he argues. <\/p>\n

\u201cPresently, out of 7.5 million employable Ontarians, around 570,000 are unemployed,\u201d he said. Approximately 45 per cent of 6.9 million Ontarians make less than $25,000. Those who make less than $25,000 are usually employed by low-paying jobs in service sectors and their employers are reluctant to pay the additional 1.9 per cent that it would cost these businesses given that they are already struggling with payments of up to $1.5 billion each year.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy implementing ORPP, we have to remove about $11 billion from out of the pockets of the employees and employers and this will no longer be in the circulation and could therefore result in further stagnation of the Ontario economy. This does not even take into consideration the additional costs associated with the bureaucracy, administration, money and fund managing costs.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Liberal candidate Chris Ballard had some high profile help on the campaign trail last week in former Prime Minister Paul Martin. <\/p>\n

Mr. Martin joined Ballard at the Aurora Shopping Centre to meet<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6782,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/2014-05-29-05.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-1LB","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-29 04:38:51","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}