Kathleen Wynne reveals more on new Ontario pension plan

The soon-to-be-implemented Ontario Retirement Pension Plan will be indexed to inflation,Premier Kathleen Wynne announced Tuesday during a news conference at a downtown Toronto cafe.

"I won't be premier when the young people who work here today retire, so it would've been easy to kick this decision down the road," Wynne said. "But that would be irresponsible."

Wynne said the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan, set to become a reality on Jan. 1, 2017, will eventually cover more than three million people who don't have a workplace pension plan.

She noted that if a worker who contributes to the plan dies before retirement, their surviving spouse or beneficiary will receive a lump sum payment equal to the value of the pensionthe worker had built up.

The premier, along with Finance Minister CharlesSousaand associate Finance MinisterMitzieHunter, gave the details at Impact Kitchen on King Street East in Toronto.

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The premiersaid if a worker dies before retirement and they are part of the plan, their surviving spouse or beneficiary will receive a lump sumpaymentequal to the value of the pension a measure currently excluded fromthe Canada Pension Plan (CPP).

Half a century ago, the CPP was first introduced byLester Pearson's Liberal government. Wynne marked that anniversary by comparing her plans with those of Pearson's in 1965.

"The year I went into high school, the government decided this was an important thing to do CPP," she said. "We have all benefited from their foresight. Fifty years later, it's time to look ahead again."

Wynnehad mentioned retracting the provincial plan if the Liberals won the federal election and made good on their promise to boostCPP, butenhancement is not yet in the works, so theprovincialgovernment has decided to forgeahead with their own plan.

Wynne unveiled how the pension plan will work last August.It will eventually be mandatory for all Ontario workers whose employers do not provide a workplace pension plan, which amounts to roughly3.5 million people.

Workers and their employers would each pay premiums of 1.9 per cent of salary, to a maximum of $1,643 a year. The maximum annualpension payout would be15 per cent of a worker's salary, topping out at $12,815.

Companies with 500 or more employees will begin contributing on January 1, 2017.It begins in 2018 for medium-sized firms those with 50-499 employees and smaller companies will start in 2019.

Those details were revealed amid the heat of the federal election campaign. At the time, Wynnehinted she might cancel the provincial plan if the TrudeauLiberals were to form government and follow through on their promise to beef up CPP. But after federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau methis provincial counterparts lastDecember, it emerged there will be no enhancements to CPP in 2016.