Finance minister says Ontario will introduce own pension plan

Federal government fails to expand CPP, Ontario will look for its own solution

Ontario is determined to go it alone.

The province will find a “made in Ontario” solution to bolster retirement savings — which will likely mean an Ontario pension plan, provincial finance minister Charles Sousa said on Monday.

Sousa told reporters Ontario will set up its own pension plan after the federal finance minister Jim Flaherty said the federal conservatives will not take action on expanding the CPP at this point.

Expanding the CPP would not make sense while the economy is still recovering, and somewhat precarious, Flaherty said during a meeting with provincial and territorial finance ministers at Meech Lake.

Ontario had strongly hoped the federal government would take action on the CPP, Sousa told reporters, and setting up a provincial pension plan was not the province’s first choice — but something needs to be done. 

"I'm very disappointed that they used stall tactics to ensure that CPP enhancement wasn't even considered at this time," Sousa told reporters.

No timeline or details have been released to the public yet, as Ontario is in the very preliminary stages of considering a provincial pension plan, reports say. But Ontario may find allies in several other provinces that also expressed frustration and disappointment about the federal government’s refusal to make changes to the CPP.

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