I'm sorry.
What we're debating, if I understand it correctly, is a subamendment to an amendment to add clause 43.1 to Bill C-30. I'm going to break it down and explain why I'm here to support that subamendment. I know that sounds incredibly procedural. Particularly for the people in my community watching from home, I'm going to explain why that matters.
Clause 43, which is the overall part of Bill C-30 that we're studying, deals with changes to Canada pension plan contribution rates. Those are the rates that workers, employers and self-employed Canadians pay into the CPP, which means this clause would affect how much money is collected for the Canada pension plan on a go-forward basis.
As my colleague from across the table said, this clause would reduce future CPP contribution rates. For employees and employers, that rate would move down to 4.75%. For self-employed people, who are paying both the employee and employer portions, it would go down to 9.5%. That change, in case anyone wants to find it, is in division 5 of part 3, which is the part of the bill that deals with the Canada pension plan.
As my colleague from across the table said, we would be reducing CPP contributions “by 40 basis points”. That would be good for some Canadians in the short term, but it would not be automatically good for all Canadians overall, because it would depend on—as those who look at this area on a regular basis know—whether the CPP can absorb the lower revenue without weakening the plan. If that were to happen, it would create future pressure to raise the rates again. That would shift the costs onto younger workers, which is something we talk about in the House of Commons on a regular basis.