Provincial pension plan hits farmers hard

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Comments

Like I have said before Ag thinks it should be the exception and have yet another exemption . Wages are wages and "all" wages should help pay for the plan . If foreign workers are being used then suck it up butter cup because they are taking jobs away from locals and some one has to help pay for people on welfare and our healthcare . Foreign workers do not spend gobs of money here other than in the thrift stores . They hoard their money , send it home and take it with them when they return home .

Further any one who could not see the writing on the wall is a fool . The OFA supported green energy with out even so much as asking or doing their own cost analisys even after being asked to get one done at it's own convention . The gov is trying to help the poor so they will have money to spend on hydro when it's price goes completely out of control in 5 years . Gov is also trying to keep people from leaving the province with a pension carrot . Agriculture and OFA can cry all the rivers they want but they never seem to be pro-active on any thing that really hits the ag pocket book until after the fact , then they ask for another exemption and say we tried .

So now we have basically two provincial pension plans . This new one and the old one . Along with the hidden one that keeps every one in a nursing home who needs it . Then we still have the Capitol Gains exemption pension in agriculture . It is about time that Ag makes it's contribution and smiles while doing so . Your representatives might make it look like they are upset but are they ? Who are they really working for !

A worker is a worker and a wage is a wage . Deductions need to be collected so collectively we all live in harmony .

Old provincial pension plan??? The hidden one that keeps everyone in a nursing home who needs it???? uh?
Please enlighten me in regards to the above mentioned.

Raube Beueman

All citizens rich or poor have the same right to care and to be kept in a nursing home . The difference is that any one with money will have to pay . Any one with no money the province pays for . The only difference will be a private or semi private room . The food and service is all the same .
Many would lump it in with health care but really it is part of an unknown hidden provincial pension plan . Those who have no one and nothing are looked after .

By the time a 2015 Jamaican farm worker retires, he/she could easily have family permanently living in Canada, and it would make sense, especially if he/she has a pension from Canada, to retire here to be with his/her famiily.

In addition, there's nothing to prevent any temporary worker from applying to move here permanently at any point in his/her working life and stay here when he/she retires.

In exactly the same way, his/her former farm-owner employer from Canada could retire to Jamaica to enjoy the weather.

Furthermore, I certainly hope whatever pension my daughter earned during her two years of employment as a school teacher in Korea won't be denied her because she was considered, by Korea, to have been a foreign worker.

And, of course, it's always a double-standard for the farming community to ignore the extra costs we happily impose on others at the same time we complain about the extra costs we believe we are unfairly-shouldering. For example, we don't care a whit about the extra costs supply management imposes on consumers and grain farmers don't care a whit about the extra costs ethanol mandates impose on hog and cattle feeders.

This pension exemption argument is neither a proud moment nor a shining example of ethical integrity for the Ontario farm community.

My view may not represent the view of any organization with which I am affiliated and I am almost certain it doesn't - too bad for them!

Stephen Thompson, Clinton ON

"How does it help the Ontario economy if we do it for foreign workers?". By that logic, one could also then ask, how does it help the Ontario economy if we use foreign workers in the first place.
This is old farmer logic-protectionism, for example, if a TV manufacturer was in Ontario, but the TV costs 2 thousand instead of the one from South Korea of the same quality that costs 1 thousand, which one would Mr. Forth buy?
We now live in a global economy which works both ways. Money comes into Canada also, in ways most don't think about since they don't see the world past the end of their driveway. For example, BIP.UN, Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, trades on the TSX. This company has operations in Europe, Australia and North and South America. Any Canadian that holds this equity therefore is receiving profits from around the globe.
The ORPP, once implemented could hold this equity giving every one exposure to BIP.UN

It is not up to government or any group to decide what country someone should spend their pension money in, regardless of where it was earned.

Raube Beuerman

One way that makes sense is to collect the monies from the employer since it is in all reality taking work away from locals . Now whether or not it should be deducted & collected from foreign workers pay checks is a whole other argument . You can't really say that the money paid to foreign workers helps the local economy when they take it back home . So would it not be fair to have them help in some way to support the pension since they are making money and taking jobs that immigrants would likely fill .
I have no idea how EI , CPP and any other deductions works with foreign workers . It could be that the use of temp foreign workers is cheaper because the deductions do not apply . Same as special tax rates for bunk houses . There just seems to be too many slippery things in Ag when it comes to paying the tax man and others .

Ok so it seems we have at least one general farm org and a sector of agriculture that is stuck on the cost of the pension plan . It is a 1.9 percent increase . What has hydro increased already and what will the increase be in 5 years for hydro ? To say that processors will leave is fearmongering and nothing more . For a business that is only making ends meet it will hurt much more . For a farm with a gross of $500,000.00 I doubt it will really even be noticed . The rich multi millionaire farmers are the ones crying ? Some one needs a reality check .

It is ironic that in the same week we have two stories at opposite ends of the scale . This one about a 1.9 % increase in costs and another one where gov money ( 2 million ) was used to increase sales 22 & 24 % . Sort of like polar opposites . No way should we hear any thing from pork on this at any time .

This is the first I have heard any thing from any farm org on this subject . CFIB ( Canadian Federation of Independant Business ) on the other hand has been vocal on this for some time . CFIB also was the group to get the Capital Gains exemption increased to $1 million . If you are paying a membership fee you really need to look at who is working and actually doing things for your business !

We all need to help close the gap and support the new Ontario Pension Plan .
Good for the Ontario Liberals for finally getting some thing correct and making Ag contribute it's share . A job is a job and employees are employees .

If you like what the Liberals did for Green Energy, eHealth and Ornge, you'll love what they do with your pension.
This forced pension money will all find its way into Ontario Green Bonds, Ontario Savings Bonds, and Wynne's Future Prosperity Bonds...all at less than favorable rates.

Government is the people incase you did not realize . Minimum wage had to increase to make way for all of the new taxes and costs that the people are going to have pay for like GE , eHealth , Ornge which are just a few . What you don't hear of is all the money put in private pockets through backroom deals , subsidies , grants and loans that won't ever get paid back . Don't forget that every working stiff also has to help pay in to the pension fund .

Now you also have to take exception with some moron claiming ethanol and bio diesel is hurting livestock farmers when it is making a crop a multi use crop that is lowering the cost of feed and helping improve our environment .
Whats worse is the amount of people that say they feel that our General Farm Organizations ( all of them ) are all useless but feel that they are supporting the best of the worst . Now there is a real vote of confidence .

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