Sousa’s pension plan push getting resistance

(Update)

Ontario’s finance minister released an economic report Wednesday and was using it to make a case for an Ontario pension plan — but opposition MPPs are not buying it.

The report looks 20 years into the future and says Ontario’s economic growth will lag behind the rest of the country and the rest of the world. Many are questioning how accurate a 20 year forecast can be — but the Liberals say it highlights the need for an provincial pension plan to supplement federal pensions.

Sousa says an aging population is one of the biggest challenges the province faces. “I’ve been in homes where seniors are relying on meals on wheels because they don’t have enough to support themselves. That is the kind of thing we need to correct.”

PC finance critic Vic Fedeli doesn’t put much faith in the report. “It’s 100 per cent a political document. They blame the feds, they blame the tsunami, they blame the global recession, when everyone else has recovered except Ontario.”

The NDP’s Peter Tabuns agrees. “It does look partisan to us, like it was written to support the premier’s initiatives”

An Ontario pension plan was a NDP idea, but the New Democrats still won’t say whether they’ll support the budget, expected at the beginning of May.

In question period, the Tories continued to push the government on the gas plant scandal.

Fedeli: “I tell you, so many scandals, so little time. We’ve got Pan Am, budget leak, gas plant, there’s so many and we’ll keep trying to address them all.”

Also at Queen’s Park today, auditor-general Bonnie Lysyk has agreed to investigate the runaway security costs for the Pan Am games which have doubled from the original estimate: $239 million, from an original budgeted figure of $113 million.

Video: News Now coverage of Sousa’s speech: