TORONTO — Ontario Liberals will take concrete action to expand access to private sector employer-based pension plans, ensuring that workers in all sectors and all situations can look forward to a more secure retirement. Drawing on her record of fighting for and achieving a better retirement for everyone in Ontario and across Canada through an expanded Canada Pension Plan, Premier Kathleen Wynne is now building on that progress.
These new measures will expand coverage, improve portability of plans and create opt-in options for the self-employed and other workers. The Ontario Liberals will help ensure that pensioners are also better protected and receive greater priority in the event of a bankruptcy.
Premier Wynne was at Wattpad in Toronto today, where she met with young high-tech workers to hear from them how the changing nature of work makes access to pensions more challenging — and to discuss what can be done to fix it.
The retirement security that previous generations could count on is disappearing across North America. Workers of all ages and experience levels are concerned about how the many gaps in pension plan coverage mean they may not be able to afford to retire at all. Whether you work on contract, or you’re building a career at a start-up, or you’re changing jobs regularly, there are many reasons why you might not have access to a workplace pension plan, or why it might not be adding up the way you need it to.
A re-elected Ontario Liberal government will take steps to expand access to retirement savings opportunities so that more workers can take advantage of them.
The Ontario Liberals are the only party with a plan to increase access to pensions, and the track record of improving pension policy for everyone. Neither the Doug Ford Conservatives nor the NDP have brought forward a detailed plan to help workers from different backgrounds retire with greater security.
The Liberal plan also expands publicly funded prescription drugs to cover one-in-two people in Ontario, makes the largest mental health care investment in Canadian history, builds a record amount of transit, boosts hospital funding, helps more people go to college or university with publicly funded tuition and lets more parents go back to work by funding preschool child care from 2 ½ to kindergarten. Ontario’s economy is growing stronger, but that growth and the care and services it funds are at risk this election.
“Everyone hopes that — after decades of hard work — they will be able to enjoy their retirement without worrying about hitting the end of their savings. The changing economy has jeopardized all that. People across our province, particularly young people, are falling through the gaps in pension plan coverage. Just like Ontario Liberals led the way on enhancing the Canada Pension Plan, we’re going to open up pension plans to more people and make sure those plans follow people from job to job.”
—Premier Kathleen Wynne
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