Thank you.
I'm going to turn from young people to seniors and income security for seniors. As you know, Minister, demographically Canada is aging, and we're all more concerned about this as we go forward.
Now, there's no magic to pensions. If folks want stable, sufficient income in retirement, it requires people to put away money in a disciplined way in a stable, secure fund for a long period of time.
The Canada pension plan is Canada's largest pension fund. It is the most stable pension fund. It is the most diversified pension fund. It is completely portable across the country. It is jointly funded between employers and employees. It is the cheapest pension fund in the country for employers, because they have no administrative costs for actuaries, lawyers, or otherwise. Also, it has guaranteed benefits.
We know that it was designed specifically to provide 25% of income replacement in retirement. We also know that well over 50% of working Canadians no longer have workplace pensions. That's a change from how it was 20 or 30 years ago when the 25% was figured out.
Mr. Minister, why not implement the NDP's plan to gradually and prudently phase in small increases to the Canada pension plan contribution rate to gradually result in a doubling of pension benefits, to recognize the fact that more seniors will need to rely on the Canada pension plan 10, 20, or 30 years out? What's wrong with that idea?