Those points of order lasted several minutes already. I was interrupted by them.
I want to link it back to why recession matters. Recession means negative GDP growth. It usually means fewer jobs. It's workers who have those jobs who pay into the CPP. It's a generation now graduating into a made-by-Liberal, made-in-Ottawa recession. It's very important that we study these intergenerational effects or at least have some data on the intergenerational effects of the CPP and, of course, the sustainability of the CPP as it pays out those pension obligations, because it's dependent on the growth of those assets, dependent on the contributions of current generations.
This is all about the different generations. We have gen X, we have gen Y, we have gen Z. I have the pleasure of being gen Y, although some people, when they first look at me, may say I'm in gen Z. I digress.
It's not an unreasonable request. This is a bare minimum that we expect parliamentarians to be looking at. This is not an issue that is at the top of everyone's mind, but it's also very important that this will affect almost everyone. Everyone who works for a paycheque will deal with CPP. Even small and medium-sized businesses have to make employer contributions as well, and they have to deal with the CPP. Every Canadian worker who pays into the CPP deserves to know more about the viability of the CPP.
Of course, the assets that CPP invests in traditionally have been a lot of liquid assets—a lot of real estate, infrastructure assets, private equity, venture capital. Of course, most of those returns now no longer have the.... They generally have created better risk-adjusted returns than public equities; therefore, you can generate better returns, hypothetically, than by investing in a public market, like buying a stock index passively—the S&P 500 or the TSX 60. Those assumptions have changed recently. Those alternative asset classes are no longer generating the same level of risk-adjusted return.
When you look at the CPP and its viability for the next generation, if it's still continuing to use that sort of investment mandate.... That has been a recipe for success for many decades. The next generation, the youngest generation, which might not withdraw from the CPP until 40 or 50 years from now, needs to know that perhaps there are assets that are maybe not generating the same sort of risk-adjusted return as those of previous generations.
What has worked—the contribution rates that have worked before to get the same withdrawals—might not be the same, because we're living in a Liberal, low-growth environment. You're not going to expect asset returns to have the same returns as for previous generations. It's very important that we study the intergenerational impacts when we're in a Liberal, low-growth—