Opposition to ORPP hits a new high

Toronto, September 10, 2015 – As more details emerge from the provincial government, any existing business support for the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan (ORPP) is evaporating, according to the latest Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) survey.

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A full 90 per cent of business owners are now opposed to this misguided pension plan, up from 86 per cent the last time CFIB asked its members the same question in 2014. Support has dropped from eight per cent to five per cent over the same period. These results mirror those of recent public opinion polls, which also show that opposition is trending up, while support is crumbling. “The more people learn about the government’s expensive and unneeded pension scheme, the more they see how flawed it is,” said Plamen Petkov, CFIB vice-president for Ontario. “Ontarians are realizing that the ORPP isn’t going to help them in retirement as it would take 40 years for contributors to receive full benefits. All the pension tax will do in the meantime is hurt the province’s small business community and put jobs at risk.” Seventy per cent of Ontario’s small business owners say that the ORPP will force them to freeze salaries, while more than half report that they will have to eliminate positions to deal with the added costs. Small employers believe the best ways the government can help Ontarians save more for retirement are to control spending and reduce taxes (75 per cent), allow for voluntary contributions towards retirement savings (56 per cent), and promote the importance of saving for retirement to the public (48 per cent). “The government consistently tells us that they’ve consulted with the small business community on ORPP implementation,” said Nicole Troster, CFIB director for provincial affairs for Ontario. “When you have nine out of 10 small business owners telling you they outright oppose your plan, and you continue to push it, you either aren’t consulting, or you aren’t listening.” Survey Result: Small business opposition to the ORPP To arrange an interview with Plamen Petkov or Nicole Troster, please contact Ryan Mallough at public.affairs@cfib.ca . CFIB is Canada’s largest association of small- and medium-sized businesses with 109,000 members across every sector and region.