Any additional—and I'll avoid the words “tax” or “payroll tax”—employer-funded cost of employment has to be considered very carefully. Again, a lot of employers are like me. We're going to look at what it costs to hire somebody in this province versus Ontario, versus the U.S., and versus Europe or Australia. Any additional cost of employment will factor in our decisions in terms of where we want to hire, invest, and create new jobs.
I understand the need for a federally mandated expanded CPP program. Given the alternatives in some of the provinces, this is the far better option. We want to see a federal program rather than each province going it alone, so we support that. We also support the gradual implementation of the changes that are being proposed. As a business owner, the worst thing that we can be exposed to is sudden unpredictable shifts in policy and taxation that we can't predict or that we have a very hard time reacting to.
To answer your question about CPP and the policy that's being proposed, we would not be in favour of an additional cost of employment, but if it has to be done, this is a somewhat responsible way to do it.