The proposed Ontario Retirement Pension Plan is being questioned by more than 100 large Ontario companies over its impact on jobs and the economy.

Employers including Maple Leaf Foods, IBM, Ford of Canada and Magna International have signed a letter by the Ontario Chamber of Commerce urging the governing Liberals at Queens Park to quickly clarify some details of the new pension plan.

The Ontario Retirement Pension Plan will be phased in starting in 2017 and require mandatory contributions from employers and workers of more than 16-hundred dollars a year each at any company that does not already offer a workplace pension.

Chamber of Commerce president Allan O’Dette says 44 per cent of its members say they will reduce their payroll or hire fewer workers if they have to pay new premiums. And he says employers also need to know exactly what types of savings plans and pooled registered pensions would exempt them from the new provincial plan.

CARP – A New Vision of Aging – is in support of the proposed ORPP. CARP members say it’s important for future generations to have this additional income when they retire.