I have quite a lot.
The CPP is a good example of something that was a big idea that worked. It helped lift an entire generation out of poverty. It required substantial government investment. We are now facing a situation where the amount of coverage in CPP, for example, is simply not enough. A $10,000-a-year maximum is what people can expect, and people in the low-wage sector, who are most likely to be facing poverty in old age, will not have their maximum CPP.
So it certainly takes us a long way along, but by itself it's not enough. That is why we're recommending a separate instrument that could include a vertical enhancement of the CPP to take more people out of poverty using that kind of process.
That, of course, recommends government involvement, government dollars, but the more important part is self-reliance. The kind of pension vehicle that we're recommending in relation to the people who do not have access to employer-sponsored plans is based upon the fact that both employer and employee contribute to their own retirement savings. It's that theme of self-reliance that's really a marker of this generation.
So when we're talking about people already living in poverty who are relying on OAS or GIS, we say that you have to give them more money. As somebody before me said, the basic cause of poverty is the lack of money. For those people, we need to make sure that we are lifting them out of poverty with direct dollars now, but for the future...the opportunity arises for people to contribute to their own retirement, including through a vertically expanded CPP.
The mandatory nature of the CPP is important, because it helps make it universal. There are some who argue that if you make the pension vehicle attractive enough, people will come. That may be so, but in order to get through, especially to the low-wage sectors, there will be more needed than simply an opportunity. There needs to be some kind of encouragement.
In a slightly separate vein, important also on the theme of self-reliance, I wanted to touch on caregiving as one of those kinds of social changes that would actually help people who are facing poverty, who cannot make ends meet, who rely on the kindness of their family and friends to help them get by. An estimated 5 million Canadians today are providing informal caregiving to friends and relatives. Those people need some kind of support or incentive to allow them to keep doing this, to make sure that their jobs are waiting for them when they get back to them and the formal health care system actually facilitates their work.