The $70 million spent by Premier Kathleen Wynne to set up the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan was a pricey “bargaining chip” taxpayers can ill afford, says the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.

“It’s completely irresponsible and much higher than expected,” CFIB Ontario vice-president Plamen Petkov charged Friday in the wake of a government report on costs of the fledgling pension plan.

It is now being shut down in the wake of a landmark deal in late June between the provinces and new federal Liberal government to improve the Canada Pension Plan for retirees.

Petkov, whose group represents 42,000 small- and medium-sized businesses and opposed the Wynne plan as a “payroll tax,” accused her of rushing efforts to start the ORPP instead of waiting a year to see if bolstering the CPP was in the cards.

“It was used as a very expensive bargaining chip during CPP negotiations. It’s easy to spend someone else’s money,” added Petkov, who called the spending a “colossal waste of taxpayers’ money.”

Wynne has maintained other provinces would not have agreed to boost the CPP if Ontario had not been going full speed ahead with its pension plan.

“The need to address the retirement savings gap was too important for us to sit idly by,” Finance Minister Charles Sousa said in defending the costs of the plan, which was to start collecting premiums of up to $1,643 annually from workers and companies in 2018.

“During a period of uncertainty about whether CPP enhancement could be achieved, we took a responsible approach and continued our work.”

Wynne’s Liberals campaigned on the ORPP in the 2014 election campaign that vaulted her to a majority government, saying the two-thirds of Ontario workers who don’t have company pensions need more than the CPP to have adequate retirement incomes.

CPP benefits, which now max out at $13,110 annually, will eventually rise to $17,478 with higher premiums for employees and employers being phased in by 2026.

Petkov said he welcomes a pending review of the expenditures, including $15 million set aside for contingencies, by Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk, whose annual report is due in December.

Of concern are the millions in initial planning and advertising costs, with the Progressive Conservatives citing $600,000 worth of “partisan” ORPP ads during last summer and fall’s marathon federal election campaign.

According to a report released by the government Thursday on the eve of the long weekend, the costs of setting up the pension plan include $12.1 million for a five-year lease of two furnished floors of an office building at 2 Queen St. E., $17.6 million for consultants, and $3.5 million in legal fees.

Officials said the government hopes to offset the cost of the lease by putting other provincial workers in the premium downtown space.

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The PCs charged the “failed ORPP scheme cost Ontario taxpayers $70 million and delivered zero dollars in benefits” while raising questions about the future of Indira Naidoo-Harris, whom Wynne appointed to cabinet as associate minister of finance responsible for the ORPP shortly before the CPP deal was reached.

Wynne has pledged to reassign Naidoo-Harris, a former broadcaster who represents Halton in the legislature, to new duties, but no announcements have been made.

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