Bill C-320 (Historical)

Pension Ombudsman Act

An Act to establish the office of Pension Ombudsman to investigate administrative difficulties encountered by persons in their dealings with the Government of Canada in respect of benefits under the Canada Pension Plan or the Old Age Security Act or tax liability on such benefits and to review the policies and practices applied in the administration and adjudication of such benefits and liabilities

Pension Ombudsman Act

[The Acting Speaker (Mr. Marcel Proulx)]

Order, please. I wish to inform the House that there is an error in today's order paper. Two identical private members' bills appear on the list of items outside the order of precedence under the private members' business section of the order paper.

Bill C-228 establishing the pension ombudsman act, standing in the name of the hon. member for Winnipeg Centre, was introduced and read the first time on Monday, October 18, 2004. Yesterday, Bill C-320, a bill identical to Bill C-228, standing in the name of the hon. member for Winnipeg North, was introduced and read the first time. Only the first such item should have appeared on the order paper. I am directing the Clerk to remove Bill C-320 from the order paper.

I regret any inconvenience this may have caused hon. members.

It being 5:31 p.m., the House will now proceed to the consideration of private members' business as listed on today's order paper.

[Judy Wasylycia-Leis, NDP, Winnipeg North, MB]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-320, an act to establish the office of Pension Ombudsman to investigate administrative difficulties encountered by persons in their dealings with the Government of Canada in respect of benefits under the Canada Pension Plan or the Old Age Security Act or tax liability on such benefits and to review the policies and practices applied in the administration and adjudication of such benefits and liabilities.

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to introduce a bill that was formerly before the House by a colleague, the member for Regina—Qu'Appelle, who had attempted on several occasions to seek leave of the House to pursue this initiative. It is a very important one in the context of current concerns about our pension provisions.

The purpose of the bill is to establish the office of a pension ombudsman to assist persons dealing with the government on benefits under the Canada pension plan and the Old Age Security Act or tax liabilities thereon in cases where they are dealt with unfairly and unreasonably or with unreasonable delay.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)