Ontario appears to be killing its pension plan slowly after CPP deal

TORONTO – Ontario’s Liberal government is signalling that dismantling the administration of its now-redundant pension plan won’t happen quickly.

Premier Kathleen Wynne had been pushing for years for an enhancement to the Canada Pension Plan, but established a made-in-Ontario solution when it appeared that wouldn’t happen under the previous federal government.

The country’s finance ministers reached an agreement Monday to enhance CPP, meaning the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan, which was to start in 2018, is no longer needed.

READ MORE: Ontario premier says no CPP deal if she wasn’t ‘thorn in the side’ of other premiers

But 50 staff members of the administration corporation had already been working to set up the framework, and the minister responsible for the file said today there is no timeline for winding down the ORPP.

The government has not yet said if any or all of those staff members had severance clauses in their contracts, or how much it has spent so far setting up the now-defunct plan.

Expenditure estimates from the Ministry of Finance show that $14 million had been earmarked for 2015-16.