Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and members of the committee.
My name is Paul Bourque. I am from Moncton, New Brunswick. I just moved back to Moncton, New Brunswick after spending 34 years in Ottawa working at the House of Commons, so I'm well aware of what happens at these committees.
I'm here to talk to you a little bit about the RRSP program. It started in 1957 and in the early eighties the government put on a big push to promote the program.
I entered the program and I am now at a stage where, if I want to remove money from the program, I'm being taxed at a much higher rate. Although when the program started most people were convinced that when you retire you have a lower income it's interesting how by removing money from the RRSP program you end of actually taxed at a higher rate than a lower rate.
The reason for my presentation today is to see if we can come out with a tax-free approach of withdrawing money from the RRSP program that would help seniors and homeowners to renovate their homes because we all know that seniors want to stay in their homes rather than going to the seniors residences, etc. Creating a tax-free withdrawal would allow people to improve their homes, improve their quality of life, and would make it a lot easier for the individuals to create some spur in the economy for construction workers and people who are in renovation programs.
I hope the committee takes this under consideration because I understand, and my memory tells me, that once upon a time the government did relax some of the rules and regulations around RRSP withdrawals. I don't know if that's something this committee would consider at this time. I'm sure there is enough data that the Department of Finance can provide in terms of the cost and how successful the program was in past years.
Now that I am a retired citizen I think the government has to do a better job about promoting this program because I don't hear people talking about it the way we used to talk about it in the eighties. If they could talk about it a little bit more and make it more important I think the government could always increase the money homeowners can have if they go ahead with this tax-free withdrawal.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.