On December 18^th, 2014, the Ontario government released its consultation paper on the new Ontario Retirement Pension Plan (ORPP).

What’s important to note is that the government’s “preferred approach” is to impose the ORPP on Ontario employers who have defined contribution registered pension plans, group RRSPs, PRPPs and DPSPs.  The government plans to exempt employees who participate in comparable workplace pension plans from participating in the ORPP, but proposes to only include defined benefit and target benefit multi-employer pension plans in the definition of “comparable plan”.  However, this could be changed.

Not all workers in Ontario will be affected by the ORPP.  The government has confirmed that Ontario employees who work in federally regulated sectors, such as telecommunications and banking, will not be required to participate.  In addition, employees earning less than $3,500 and the self-employed are proposed to be exempt from participating.

The government is inviting submissions on the consultation paper until February 13, 2015.

For more information on the ORPP, please see our earlier blog postings on December 9, 2014 and July 28, 2014.

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