Mr. Chair, I think there are a couple of issues. One is the issue of fiscal sustainability. The other is the issue that I think Philip was dealing with, which speaks to the impact on the economy. I think with respect to fiscal sustainability, it was the work that we did when I was in the Parliamentary Budget Office on the federal government's fiscal structure after they changed the Canada health transfer.... When they changed the escalator, the Canada health transfer became fiscally sustainable. That means we have a structure in place, though maybe not the structure that we want, that will stabilize debt relative to the size of the economy when you overlay changing demographics.
I think when the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance said that the old age security program was not sustainable, we had a problem with that, because it is fiscally sustainable in the context of a program that is funded from general revenues.
There is the issue, which I think Mr. Cross raised, that as we look to the long term and see declining labour input growth because of aging demographics, do we want to raise the labour force participation rate? Do we want to raise their labour force participation rate? Having us work longer is one of those ways we could increase labour force participation and keep our growth rates up.