CHALLENGING THE CPP EXPANSION

   Looking ahead, there’s another big federal tax challenge for the Ford government—the looming Canada Pension Plan (CPP) expansion, with the first of several significant CPP tax increases beginning in January 2019.
   Back in 2016, the Trudeau government and the provinces agreed to expand the CPP, which means higher forced contributions today (i.e. more money deducted from paycheques) with the expectation of increased retirement benefits in the future.

  Not only is CPP expansion unnecessary, it’s also counterproductive. Forcing Canadians to contribute more to the government-run pension will simply reduce the amount they save in private voluntary savings vehicles, resulting in little to no overall increase in total savings. This matters, because relative to private savings, the CPP is less flexible, offers less choice and gives a meagre return on individual contributions.