Finance committee  I think that definitely the ages need not be the same, but they should be coordinated across those various public policy elements, and they probably shouldn't be fixed over time. As Canadians age—or at least as life expectancies increase—those fixed years should be adjusting acco

Finance committee  Well, that's what Sweden did, and it's certainly something that we should be looking at very seriously for Canada.

Finance committee  I would agree with what everyone has said, with one caveat. There's a trade-off with simplification. Simplification is good on its own, but a slightly more complex system allows you to target very carefully. So if there's something worth targeting, and if we really want to target

Finance committee  Certainly mobility assistance for seasonal work could be very valuable. If we look at the employment rates in Alberta, it is the one jurisdiction in Canada that basically has no seasonality anymore. It used to, 20 years ago, but it doesn't anymore. Whereas, in other parts of Ca

Finance committee  No, I'm sorry. I didn't.

Finance committee  I'm not sure how artificially inflated those wages are in all regions of the country. In Alberta, you're in the middle of a boom, and in booms, wages go up. I don't think that's artificial inflation; that's economics at work. In other parts of the country—

Finance committee  I can't speak to that. I haven't read that article.

Finance committee  I think we want to think about the whole package: RRSPs, CPPs, the whole range of government public policies. I think that the voluntary deferral provisions in the budget are extremely good, and we want to think about that type of thing writ large across the retirement system.

Finance committee  Clearly, our immigration system is in need of reform and the minister has announced an amazingly large and detailed series of reforms over the past couple of months, most of which are not part of this budget. The elements that are in this budget are primarily to give the minister

Finance committee  I am 100% in accord with my colleagues in their projections. I think they are simple numbers; it's a question of what we do in response. I think that the elements in this budget are a good first step, but they're not a comprehensive response. One of the things we might want to

Finance committee  I think what you're referring to is the labour market information changes that the Minister of HRSDC announced recently. I view these as very positive. It's about the federal government systematically collecting information about job opportunities and disseminating it to Canadian

Finance committee  Thank you very much for the question. I'd like to clarify one point before responding. That is, when I talked about Alberta, my projection is that individual workers in Alberta who are frequent claimants will be much more strongly impacted than workers in other regions, especial

Finance committee  Thank you very much for inviting me. I appreciate the time. While I'd be happy to answer questions regarding division 24 of the bill on old age security, division 43 on the EI Act, or division 54 on immigration and refugee protection, I'm going to speak initially on the OAS and

Finance committee  I can hear you now.