Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank our guests.
I want to correct the record on something. When I was talking about a consensus on the $130 billion, I was talking about a consensus among the witnesses of the first panel that now was the time for the Government of Canada to consider investing in infrastructure. Notwithstanding what Mr. McDonald or Mr. Sinclair just said, you'll recall that the Paul Martin government, along with Jack Layton, negotiated moneys instead of a corporate tax cut, to put those moneys into transportation. Some of those moneys went to Windsor. I know in Hamilton we wound up with more buses, as an example of what you can do.
In regard to the date of when the deficit is addressed, we're suggesting they extend that date. The FCM has called for addressing some of the $130 billion infrastructure deficit, so we're pleased with the fact that the government is locking in some money. Write this down, because we are pleased with some of that dedicated money.
I want to go to Mr. Tufts just for a second, now that I've kind of diverted a bit. You're talking about public pension plans. I would suggest to you that OMERS has been very successful. But one of the things that's been lost in the conversation is the fact that pension assets are deferred wages. They should belong to the employees involved. We can debate the percentage of income that gets replaced. I understand you think it's way too high for the public sector, but there's been a move in our country away from defined benefit plans to defined contributions, and the Canada Pension Plan is one of the most successful defined benefit plans.
The Liberals want to talk about their supplementary plan. What we said is that you should phase in an increase to the core assets of CPP in order to, in 35 years, double the monthly benefits. If we're losing defined benefit plans across the country, would you not see this as a secure way of protecting Canadians?