Mr. Speaker, I listened closely to the arguments of my friend from Brant, but demographics is a false argument. I am surprised at the Conservative members who try to use it because OAS comes out of general revenue.
In yesterday's Globe and Mail a story by Bill Curry started off by saying:
Expert advice commissioned by the federal government contradicts [the Prime Minister's] warnings that Canada can’t afford the looming bill for Old Age Security payments.
The study was done by Edward Whitehouse, who is well-known at the World Bank and OECD, and his conclusion was this:
The analysis suggests that Canada does not face major challenges of financial sustainability with its public pension schemes, and there is no pressing financial or fiscal need to increase pension ages in the foreseeable future.
The fact is it is not because of demographics that OAS could be in trouble. It is because of the ridiculous spending by the current government in terms of lowering the revenue base by corporate tax cuts, jets, jails, a bloated cabinet and the list goes on immensely.
Will the member not admit that the real reason the OAS could be in trouble is because of the spending by the government out of general revenue, not demographics?