I'm glad you could come back to give me an opportunity to speak with you today. Thank you.
I will take this opportunity to flag some general concerns I have with Bill C-26, with a focus on individuals with low earnings. Over the past few years, several researchers have expressed concerns that an expansion of the CPP's existing structure, alongside the provisions for the guaranteed income supplement, would imply a very low rate of return on contributions for individuals who enter retirement with low average earnings.
The planned changes to CPP and the Income Tax Act, as set out in Bill C-26, take some steps to mitigate those concerns. First, an expansion of the working income tax benefit is included in this bill. Most importantly, this will help some individuals with low earnings cover their additional CPP contributions. This has several other benefits.
As a method of prefunding retirement income through the current generation's tax revenues, rather than relying on programs funded by future—