The Ontario Retirement Pension Plan is dead. The federal government forged consensus on enhancing the CPP and the Ontario pension plan is going the way of the Avro Arrow.

We have no final tally on what this will all cost, but it will clearly be tens of millions of dollars.  The Premier says it is absolutely money well spent, just like the billion dollars to cancel two power plants in the GTA or the $25 million or so that went to scrapping the never-used diabetes registry.  Money well spent is the new euphemism for costly government decision-making that leaves the public worse off than it began.

That is surely true for the ORPP.  Wynne promised the ORPP to give workers more income in their retirement.  Seniors on fixed incomes have long complained that their Ontario is becoming too unaffordable for them.  So Wynne promised to boost their retirement earnings with a new plan.  She vowed to continue down that path unless the federal government came up with a deal at least as good as Ontario’s.

The business lobby fretted.  They insisted that this new payroll tax was going to kill jobs.  Businesses started doing the math for themselves, and they warned of freezing or lowering employment levels, lowering other benefits, and freezing wages.  They were not fans of the ORPP.

So it comes with some amusement that, in the end, the Ontario Chamber of Commerce is applauding the government for forging a deal with the federal government and most of the other provinces.  Of course, what this means is that businesses are going to pay less with the CPP enhancement than they would have under the Ontario pension scheme. It also means that workers benefits will be less too.  The ‘activist centre’ has a burning hole in the middle of it.

In what might be considered another crushing defeat for the proletariat, one might expect the Ontario Federation of Labour to stand up for the diminished deal for workers.  Nope.  Big labour is applauding the government for giving workers less than what was promised too.

Ok, let’s go to Queen’s Park.  We are bound to find somebody there that will call the government out.  The NDP, predictably, were complementary of the CPP enhancement, since they have been advocating for it, along with their big labour friends, for some time.

So then, it leaves us to the Ontario PCs. Will they disagree?  Here’s a quote from their critic, MPP Julia Munro: “The Ontario PC Caucus is pleased that the Wynne Liberals have listened to our calls that any retirement enhancement should be done through the Canadian Pension Plan.”

Let that sink in for a minute.

The Premier began this pension enhancement process plagued in criticism.  She has emerged from the battle with unanimity and consensus.  It’s remarkable and breathtaking!

And it’s not like there aren’t any points of contention.  The ORPP was criticized as a payroll tax, yet the CPP enhancement suddenly isn’t one?

And on the pension and seniors file, the leadership of an opposing vision continues to be absent.  The cost of living in Ontario is rising sharply in energy, property taxes, transportation, and more.  And government policies have been sufficiently responsible for these rising costs.  The solution of big government is to force savings onto people rather than prevent government policies from contributing to those increasing costs.

And how about addressing another major problem, which is that manufacturing jobs are gone, and with it the pensions and benefits that used to sustain families.  Once those jobs are gone, unskilled workers find it very difficult to find employment that comes close to replacing their pay and benefits.  Where is the vision to kick start private sector employment with good pay and benefits?  A vision that necessarily has to look at input costs such as regulation and energy, but also that inspires employers to build a more resilient and productive work force.

If we can’t fix the lagging productivity issues in our economy, we are going to lose even more jobs.  Providing employers with incentives to invest in their machinery and their people through upgrading adult literacy and numeracy proficiency can all help make the case that this pension enhancement misses the mark entirely on what this province and country needs.

We are missing that alternative vision – one that inspires Ontario to be an economic engine through smarter government decisions and a stronger economy.  The consensus on CPP enhancement shows just how far away we are from it.

This article appeared in Queen’s Park Briefing.  Visit QPBriefing.com to subscribe to this publication and stay on top of all things related to Ontario government and politics!