We do not agree at all with the Liberal Party with respect to voluntary contributions. In fact, we note that the plan set up in the early 1970s, which encouraged individual savings, has been a total failure. Right now in this great land, 60% of workers do not have an occupational pension plan and one third of seniors live below the poverty line. I think we have to face the facts. Forty years down the road, it is clear that the appetite for individual savings and RRSPs has not met expectations. When the public plan was set up based on a 25% contribution rate, the government and its social partners hoped that employers would negotiate supplemental pension plans to make up the difference. Indeed, the Supplemental Pension Plans Act was in place. However, we are seeing now that the majority of defined benefit plans are in serious trouble.
I represent wage earners from AbitibiBowater who saved their entire lives in order to contribute to their plan. Go and talk to them. The example of the gentleman sitting next to me is a flagrant one. After 40 years, we do not think that non-mandatory individual savings will change what the past was unable to change. We already have an example going back 40 years. It is not as though we were starting on day 1.
I am not yet aware of the Conservative Party's position on this. I attended a conference in Toronto organized by the CLC and the Ontario Labour Federation. Mr. Flaherty, the Minister of Finance, was in attendance to hear the presentations. To my knowledge, the Conservative Party has yet to take a definitive position on this. The Liberal Party, on the other hand, seems to have made up its mind before even hearing everyone's suggestions. We believe a national conference on pensions should be convened. It is necessary that everyone have an opportunity to present their views and that the issues as a whole be debated before the parties adopt a firm position.