Finance committee  Yes, but everyone has their own account with the Canada pension plan. You and I can go on the Government of Canada website and see all our contributions for—

Finance committee  You can go to the government website and see every penny you've paid into the Canada Pension Plan your entire working life, and it will tell you what your pension would be today based on all the funds that have been put aside for you, and that's the pension—

Finance committee  The Canada Pension Plan is much more administratively efficient than the employment insurance plan. Let's remember that the government plans to run a $16-billion surplus between now and 2016, and they ran a $57-billion surplus on EI. Our point is that the money isn't going to t

Finance committee  No. We always say that we represent those who support us. Last year, 24,000 people offered us financial support and 84,000 people even signed petitions in addition to showing their support. Those are the people we represent.

Finance committee  Unfortunately, Mr. Côté, it is just a question of money. Two months ago, our president and I drove to Montreal to hold a meeting and to gather the support of francophones. Our organization is funded by donations, and our budget is not sufficient. Nick and I are alone here in Otta

Finance committee  That's a good point. What we regard as criminal is the seizure of the public service pension fund surplus by the government for deficit reduction in the 1990s. The $57 billion in excess EI tax that was paid and that was seized and not used for EI, and also the $16 billion in ex

Finance committee  Darwin?

Finance committee  We have 84,000 supporters and about 23,000 of them sent us a cheque last year.

Finance committee  We're not a membership-based organization. Like many other not-for-profits, we have been around for 23 years. We have a self-sustaining board, similar to many of the foundations such as the World Wildlife Fund, Tides, and others.

Finance committee  We have the broadest...we've had more individual people who have sat down at their kitchen tables and written us cheques than all but three or four political parties in this country.

Finance committee  You asked how many participate. In our last survey of supporters, we had over 7,000 people on Senate abolition, so the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, late to the party, has joined the NDP in advancing the cause of Senate abolition—

Finance committee  —after soliciting the opinions of our supporters. We believe that we have a very straightforward.... Similarly, you don't find us talking about marijuana laws very much, because our supporters are divided on it and it has very little to do with government waste. That's an issue

Finance committee  These estimates go to cabinet, so there is no reason they shouldn't go to Parliament. If that had been in place, then the government wouldn't have all the embarrassment it had over the cost of replacing our air force. There is a consensus that Canada needs an air force, and every

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On behalf of the 84,000 Canadians who support the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, we welcome this opportunity to share some time with members of Parliament on the finance committee. We have put our report in front of you and you have a copy of it. Also av

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That's right. The guts and the really effective element of proactive disclosure at the ministerial level is the ability under the Access to Information Act to get the documents. A refinement on the Liberal proposal would be proactive disclosure of the source documents, as it's do