On the issue of the lack of a financial statement for the reserve force pension plan that the Auditor General could effectively audit in previous years, the only window that parliamentarians have on the financial status or the financial statements comes from the public accounts. In the Public Accounts of Canada in 2006-07, the year that the reserve force pension fund account was established, there were contributions collectively from personnel and government of $4.8 million, but administrative expenses of $1.5 million. That one and a half million dollars is about a third of the overall cost of the contributions.
For the reserve force in 2007-08, on the $66 million in contributions that year, there were an undisclosed amount of administrative expenses--presumed to be zero--and pension transfer value payments of $4.5 million. However, in 2008-09, the entire value of what was described in the previous public accounts as being pension transfer value payments became administrative expenses.
Exactly $4,567,078 million was the figure used, which then became administrative expenses that year--from the previous year--and then for that current year, approximately $4.5 million was booked as administrative expenses on $88 million in actual receipts. Then, in 2009-10, $5.3 million was booked on $95 million in receipts. In 2010, $5.2 million was booked as administrative expenses on $65 million in receipts. When you look at it comparatively, for example, on the same page that they appear in the public accounts, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police superannuation account, with $13 billion, had listed administrative expenses of $8.6 million.
Do you feel that's a reasonable representation of administrative expenses for those levels of receipts or contributions from the government and reservists? It would be my take that these administrative expenses are fairly high as a ratio of contributions, especially considering the fact that almost all funds are transferred to the pension investment board. They're not handled internally; there is simply a transfer to the pension investment board.
Would you be able to comment on whether or not reservists are getting good value from the administrative expenses?