Thanks, Susan.
I am the negotiator of the international social security agreements. We have heard from the Old Age Benefits Forum in the past and have heard from other countries as well. Certainly there is an impetus for individuals coming from those countries to have us sign those agreements.
To a large extent, I have to say we'd like nothing more. Canada has 50 social security agreements. In my experience, we are the top in terms of how many agreements we've signed. We've signed a number of agreements with countries that other countries have not yet approached—countries from the Caribbean, for example. This was just recognized in an International Monetary Fund discussion: that Canada has gone out seeking agreements with Caribbean nations.
With respect to India—let's take that example—for years India had a type of system that was called the “provident fund”. It ends up paying out benefits almost like an annuity. In doing that, they're not paying out a monthly benefit to individuals, so to try to reciprocate between Canada and India would be very difficult.
However, they've since started to make reforms to their social security system. I know that India is very interested in expanding the coverage in the country beyond public servants, representatives of the military, representatives of the police, for example, and city officials. When, in the case of China and India, there's more development in that regard and there's greater parity in terms of reciprocity, we would welcome it.