I should speak French, but it's still a work in progress.
I know my French isn't that good.
Gen alpha and gen Z will face some unique challenges, I think, going forward.
Our national debt is at $1.3 trillion or so. We have a productivity crisis, which makes it that much more challenging for gen alpha or gen Z to pay off the debt that previous generations have rung up on the credit cards.
It is incumbent upon us, in order to show gen Z and gen alpha what they will be inheriting going forward, what it looks like—whether that be debt or, in this case, CPP. We hope that it will remain solvent and that CPP will be there for the next 500 years for Canadians.
This subamendment says that “the report prepared under subsection (3) [shall] include, to the extent that the information is available, an assessment of the impact of the amendments...contained in this Division on current retirees, near-retirees, Generation X, Millennials and Generation Z”.
Having a generational breakdown, as we've said, is fair. I think we should be reassuring those who are in retirement, or those who are near retirement, that the plan is solvent. We also owe it to generations that may not receive CPP for another 40, 50 or even 60 years from now to show them what the snapshot looks like for them.
As we've seen with the recent reduction, while it is still sustainable, the cushion has been reduced. We want to make sure, for intergenerational fairness, that all generations have a view to what the CPP would look like for their generation going forward.
Those are my comments on this. I think it's a great subamendment, and I remain optimistic. Chair, we're 10 hours in or so now—maybe that's overstating it a little. We can work with the government to get some subamendments and amendments in to improve this legislation so that we can be the constructive opposition that we attempt to be.
Thank you.