CPP deal means Ontario scrapping pension plan proposal, Charles Sousa says

The Kathleen Wynne governmentis scrapping its plan to create an Ontario Retirement Pension Plan(ORPP), now that most of the provinces and Ottawa have made a deal to enhance the Canada Pension Plan, provincial Finance Minister Charles Sousa says.

Sousa, in a phoneinterview from Vancouver,saidhis government is pleasedwith the dealthat was reached at themeeting of finance ministers thereover the weekend, culminating with the announcement Monday evening.

• Finance ministers reach agreement on expanding CPP

"It was a good daytoday,"Sousatold CBC News Toronto. "We have the numbers to make it work ... and that means theORPPwill not proceed after it's all said and done," he said.

Sousa said he expects to be able toput an end to the process of setting up the ORPPofficiallybefore the Council of the Federation meeting, which beginsJuly 15. That's when the new CPP plan will befinalized.

"We put forward a plan for CPP enhancement graduated to 2024. We've agreed to extend that to 2025," Sousasaid.

Under the agreement, which would go into effect in 2019, an average Canadian worker earning about $55,000 will pay an additional $7 a month in 2019. That would increase to $34 a month by 2023.

Once the plan is fully implemented, the maximum annual benefits will increase by about one-third to $17,478.

Sousa said one of the main advantages of the new CPP is that it will cover all of Canada and its benefits would be portable from province-to-province. He said the ORPP would only have applied toworkers in Ontario who did not have workplace pensions, and it would not havecarried over to other parts of the country if a worker moved out of the province.

"The Canada Pension Plan applies to everybody," Sousa said. "So that's more positive."

The Ontariogovernment, along with other provinces, has been pushing for an enhancedCPP since 2013, saying that middle-class Canadians are not saving enough for retirement. But the Conservative government of prime minister Stephen Harperdid not want to discuss the idea.

Thatlack of co-operation from Ottawa prompted Wynneto promisethe ORPP, but she emphasized Ontario would abandon that plan if a deal to enhance the CPP could be reached.

Sousa says the much more positive attitude of Prime Minister JustinTrudeau's Liberal government was instrumental in getting an agreement.

"It wasn't easy. We had a lot of deliberations ... a lot of discussions,"Sousasaid of the negotiationswith his federal, provincial and territorial counterparts in Vancouver. "But it was positive. It was encouraging."