Business leaders are urging Ontario to move ahead with the implementation of Pooled Registered Pension Plans.
In a letter sent Thursday to Ontario finance minister Dwight Duncan, Perrin Beatty, CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Catherine Swift, CEO of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, and Frank Swedlove, head of the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association, encourage the Ontario government to proceed as quickly as possible with the establishment of PRPPs.
Introduced by the federal government in December 2010, PRPPs are intended to provide Canadians with a low-cost, professionally-managed and portable retirement savings vehicle. Because PRPP members will pool their pensions through their administrators, costs will be lower. As well, the plans would be available to workers at small- and medium-sized businesses, including the self-employed, who do not currently have access to any type of pension plan at the workplace.
In its recent provincial budget, Ontario expressed some reservations about PRPPs.
In its letter, the group responds “We believe these issues can be readily resolved and that time is of the essence in doing so.” The group adds that it does “not support the concept that PRPP implementation should be tied to CPP enhancements.”
The goup says making changes to CPP would only delay the implementation of PRPPs, which its sees as “beneficial to Ontarians.”
The group notes that federal PRPP legislation will be passed shortly. As well, Quebec recently announced a regime equivalent to PRPPs, called voluntary retirement savings plans (VRSPs), in its recent budget.