Also in the Globe TM....Action is needed after the scathing editorials about their performance.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/ontario-to-release-budget-feb-25/article28766934/

The Ontario government will delay the start of its signature Ontario Retirement Pension Plan by a year in a bid to ease the fears of businesses.

Meanwhile, the province will bring down a budget Thursday, Feb. 25 – more than a month before the end of the fiscal year and more than two months earlier than Finance Minister Charles Sousa’s three previous budgets.

Mr. Sousa made these twin announcements Tuesday at an Empire Club luncheon in Toronto.

‎"We focus on a dynamic business environment, strategic infrastructure, investments in skills and training, all within a fair society,” Mr. Sousa said, according to a copy of his speaking notes. “There are opportunities to be seized upon but we need to act quickly.”

The budget will be a crucial test of the government’s promise to balance the books by 2017. The province is currently carrying a $7.5-billion deficit – $8.5-billion when one-time temporary revenues from the sale of Hydro One are factored out. Mr. Sousa must bring that down to $4.5-billion this year to stay on track to balance.

The ORPP, a key legacy item for Premier Kathleen Wynne, was supposed to start collecting contributions from large corporations on Jan. 1, 2017. Mr. Sousa said that will now be delayed by a year to give companies more time to adjust.

“We are giving employers more time to prepare and about 400 companies involved will have the extra time they’ve asked for,” he said.

The delay will also give the small business lobby, which is set against it, more time to lobby the government to scratch it altogether. It also puts the implementation date close to the next provincial election in spring 2018.

The ‎pension will be given to roughly 3-million Ontarians who do not have a workplace pension, and will nearly double CPP benefits. But some business groups oppose it because they say it will force them to lay off staff or cut wages.

Despite the delay, the government appears committed to make the ORPP happen: Last month, it appointed former PanAmerican Games head Saad Rafi as CEO of the pension plan.

Mr. Sousa also confirmed Tuesday what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced in October, that the federal government will collect ORPP contributions on the province’s behalf, saving Ontario on administrative costs. The two governments worked out final details of this last weekend.