There are no limits on the administrative fees that will be billed in this program and that will achieve their objectives. However, the problem is that even if the future pensioners know how much they paying, they will never know how much they will get back when they retire. Is that really achieving an objective, paying and not knowing how much one will receive? That is by no means an objective.
Our Prime Minister went to Davos. Speaking to his friends in the financial sector, far away from Canadians, he informed them—the people of Canada—that their pensions were no longer guaranteed. With remarkable complacency, he talked about the fact that people were seeing that their wealth, their services and their pensions no longer belong to them. He criticized developed countries for their general desire to pay for standards and advantages that they cannot afford. The problem is not that they cannot afford them; the problem is that wealth is being hoarded by a financial sector so speculative that it is losing vast sums of money.
The financial sector's greed is entirely to blame for the recent economic recession, but no one talks about that. Wilful ignorance and complete blindness are the status quo. Everyone seems to have memory lapses and to be complacent. We forget about all the money squandered by the financial sector, which is still not keeping its promises. In Canada, what grew the fastest were not bank dividends, but the bonuses the banks paid to their top executives. That speaks volumes. It speaks volumes about who earns money and who loses it. Generally, pensioners do not come out as winners with this government.
This same government, which brags about its record when it comes to the economy, is comparing itself to the worst. It compares itself to countries like Italy and Greece. It does not compare itself to Germany, Sweden or Norway. No. It compares itself to a small club of lesser countries that adopted the same bad policy it did. It compares itself to the very worst. One day I would like our government to compare our country to the best. Then it would realize that creating 100,000 net new jobs since 2008 is not really an accomplishment, losing 350,000 jobs in the manufacturing sector that have not been replaced is not an accomplishment, and replacing jobs that pay $25 an hour with jobs that pay $10 an hour is no way to create wealth in a country. It is shameful.
A myth has been circulating in the past few days that it is fiscally responsible to roll the dice with Canadians' pensions and bet the money on the markets. We can do whatever we want with other people's money. It does not matter. Regardless of what happens, pooled registered pension plans will always guarantee a source of income and administrative fees. Regardless of how they perform, good or bad, the financial sector will always make money.
However, the whole idea behind a pension plan is not to help a certain sector make money. The idea is to guarantee to pensioners that they will be able to collect their pensions and be sheltered from poverty. That is absolutely not what the government is doing, to the extent that RRSPs, TFSAs and all the other private savings plans have no impact at all on actuarial studies regarding future trends in the government's ability to cover the cost of the guaranteed income supplement.
The government says it will cost too much, but if there were a better alternative, people would not need to ask for financial support from the government. They would not need it and they would be able to provide good pensions for themselves.
That is never the case. It basically shows that the government's calculations are wrong and that this pension scheme has only one objective: to give the financial sector what it wants, that is, the economic governance of this country.
This type of pension plan already exists in Australia. We can use it for analytical and comparative purposes. It is interesting because it was introduced almost 10 years ago in Australia, which gives us some hindsight and allows us to analyze the results in detail. First, the plan was mandatory although it was possible to opt out. Employers were required to sign up their employees for one of the many defined contribution plans provided by the private sector.
The Australian government has analyzed the results. It was rather important that it provide some analysis of the financial results. Studies commissioned by the Australian government indicate that people are not really saving. The management fees are so high and the returns so low that it would be more beneficial for employees to directly deposit their money into very low interest bank accounts. They would earn more and not lose money. If they leave their money in the private sector, they lose it. That is unacceptable.
People are being asked to put their money into a pension plan and, to date, in Australia, they are receiving less than they paid in. And yet, the Australian financial system did not hesitate to demand investment and management fees. Things went wrong. It is a major problem.
Canada has a low-cost alternative that has already proven to be effective: the Canada pension plan. No one is disputing this fact. No other system is managed for such a low cost. No one is disputing this. No one is questioning that it is appropriately capitalized.
All they are saying is that the plan will be increased over a 10-year period, not tomorrow morning. That means that, over a 10-year period, a surplus—a portion of future earnings—will be skimmed off. Part of the increase in earnings will be directed to the pension fund. We cannot ask for more in terms of the gradual nature of contributions.
Nevertheless, this government opposes it. It prefers to deprive Canadians of a secure pension in the future rather than to deprive its friends in the financial sector of a single dollar.
Mr. Hollande said that his enemy was the financial sector. Here in the House, the financial sector is represented by a political party that, unfortunately, is in power. That party would do well to remember that it was elected not by the financial sector, but by Canadians. That party promised to represent Canadians, but it is more interested in spoliation than in representation.
The government has the financial means to do this in Canada without upsetting the economy, hindering economic growth or damaging the business sector in any way. God knows that we do not want to hurt the business sector. We want to create jobs. We will not stand by and watch unemployment numbers rise. We want to find a way to turn the unemployed into workers.
We will fight for it. We will fight as hard as we can because this plan is worthless. A pension plan should produce results and have a defined objective. The government has an obligation to produce results. That is what a pension plan is: a result. All the government is saying is that it will take people's money and, with luck, it might give something back to them when they retire. That is unacceptable.
That is why I invite all Canadians to fight this worthless plan and support a public Canadian pension plan that has proven its worth in the past and will continue to do so.
