Premier Kathleen Wynne has recruited former Liberal prime minister Paul Martin to help with a “made-in-Ontario” pension plan, a clear signal the province will proceed with its own program for retirees.

But enlisting Martin — who was instrumental in saving an underfunded Canada Pension Plan a generation ago — immediately earned Wynne the enmity of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives.

Federal junior finance minister Kevin Sorenson, whose government’s refusal to enhance CPP has forced Ontario into considering a provincial plan, issued a blistering attack on Queen’s Park.

“Premier Wynne will disadvantage Ontario’s businesses with higher payroll taxes, killing jobs and deterring investment,” Sorenson said in a statement Wednesday.

“Employees simply can’t afford a smaller paycheque in this fragile global economy. The Liberal government of Paul Martin slashed transfers to Ontario at record levels, unlike our government that is increasing support to Ontario.”

But Wynne emphasized an Ontario pension plan, which will be a cornerstone of her Liberal campaign platform in an expected spring election, is about ensuring people save enough money to “allow them to have a dignified retirement.”

“To frame this as a taxation issue when it is an investment in the future . . . misrepresents the issue,” the premier said.

“We are both profoundly disappointed by the reticence of the Harper government to improve the CPP, but . . . as the federal government steps back, it’s our responsibility at the province to step forward.” she said.

As prime minister Jean Chrétien’s treasurer in the 1990s, Martin worked with the provinces to ensure Canadians were contributing enough to CPP to keep it viable.

“CPP premiums are premiums. They’re an investment in the future, they are not a tax,” he said, emphasizing it shouldn’t be a partisan debate.

Martin, who will work as an unpaid adviser to Finance Minister Charles Sousa, noted when the federal Liberals revamped the pension plan in 1997, Progressive Conservative treasurers Ernie Eves of Ontario and Jim Dinning of Alberta were key players.

“That is the kind of precedent that I think one would all intend to look for,” he said, adding such co-operation was crucial to salvaging CPP.

“We worked out the plan that saved the Canada Pension Plan, which makes it today one of the most actuarially sound in the world,” said the man widely viewed as Canada’s most successful federal finance minister.

“But it does have a problem. It has the problem that the premier has outlined and that is for middle-income Canadians, as you project ahead, the Canada Pension Plan is not going to be able to do that which it must,” said Martin, prime minister from 2003 until Harper defeated him in 2006.

Because CPP benefits max out at $12,000 a year, there is a need to force people to save more for their retirement years.

Harper and federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty have spurned Wynne’s call for enhancing the national plan over concerns the requisite increases to employee and employer payroll taxes would damage the economy.

At a Meech Lake summit last month of federal, provincial, and territorial finance ministers, Ottawa rejected calls for improvements from Ontario, Prince Edward Island and Manitoba.

However, Martin said because government projections suggest employment insurance premiums could “drop” in years ahead, an Ontario pension plan doesn’t necessarily have to adversely impact paycheques.

“You can do this without affecting people’s take-home pay to any extent.”

NDP MPP Michael Prue (Beaches—East York), whose party first promised an Ontario pension plan in 2010, insisted that “appointing another adviser is just another stalling tactic” by Wynne.

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“People who are worried about their retirement have heard a lot of talk from the Liberal government for 10 years, but haven’t seen any results.”

Martin and Wynne are politically close — his former chief of staff, Tim Murphy, is her campaign co-chair and his top adviser, David Herle, is managing her campaign.

“She is surrounded by, in my opinion, simply the best team that she could have,” he said. “I have huge confidence and the great advantage that they have is that they have the premier as their candidate.”

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