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By Jean-Pierre Laporte
Special to the Financial Independence Hub
Much ink has already been spilled since Minister of Finance Oliver rose in the House of Commons on May 26th to announce that the federal government was open to the idea of allowing additional voluntary contributions to the Canada Pension Plan, in order to give Canadians yet another avenue to save for their retirement.
Pundits and pension experts have since wondered what this new policy initiative would look like when fully fleshed out. The details provided by the Hon. Oliver have been scant except to say that employers would not be forced to contribute to the Supplemental Canada Pension Plan (S/CPP for a lack of a better acronym).
The S/CPP policy announcement comes at critical time, as the Ontario government is refining its own proposed CPP expansion initiative known as the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan ( ORPP ). The ORPP is a mandatory extension of the CPP for all workers not otherwise exempted because they work for a federal employer, or participate in a ‘comparable’ pension plan like a defined benefit plan. The ORPP was Ontario’s reaction to the lack of willingness on the part of the Harper government to impose a mandatory increase to the basic CPP benefit.
Foundation laid in 2004
