Evidence of meeting #32 for Status of Women in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was cpp.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:55 p.m.
Conservative
4:55 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Thank you very much. I would like to thank our witnesses very much for coming and answering some fairly complex questions.
I wonder whether we have the graph that Mr. Shepherd referred to earlier. Do we have it?
4:55 p.m.
Director, Retirement and Aging Division, Department of Human Resources and Social Development Canada
Do you mean the graph of international comparisons?
4:55 p.m.
Director, Retirement and Aging Division, Department of Human Resources and Social Development Canada
It's not there, but we can provide it.
4:55 p.m.
Director, Retirement and Aging Division, Department of Human Resources and Social Development Canada
Yes.
4:55 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
We can pass it on to everyone. Thank you very much.
Let me ask you one quick question. You've talked about unpaid work and the valuing of unpaid work. It seems to me that your valuing of unpaid work only applies to couples. In other words, the people who are going to get the CPP splitting or the survivor benefit or the child-rearing dropout are all people—or nearly all, with the exception of the child-rearing dropout—in a couples situation. What about single people who still continue to look after an aged parent or who continue to look after an aged sister or a disabled person in the house? How do they get value for the unpaid work they do?
5 p.m.
Acting Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Income Security and Social Development, Department of Human Resources and Social Development Canada
It's through the general drop-out provision. That general drop-out provision, which is 15%, translates to roughly seven years. Seven years in your life when you have, say, zero income is taken out of the equation for the purpose of calculating the pension.
5 p.m.
Acting Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Income Security and Social Development, Department of Human Resources and Social Development Canada
No, that is in addition. This dropout provision is the one that is going to increase with the changes that are being proposed for the CPP.
5 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Thank you very much.
We will now go in camera. If you want to take a little break, we'll go in camera then, because we have a motion on the table. If you do not wish to go in camera, we do not have to.
We won't? Okay.
We won't go in camera, but we'll suspend for two minutes while you get a cup of tea or whatever.
We're back in session.
5:05 p.m.
Bloc
Nicole Demers Bloc Laval, QC
Madam Chair, if I may, I would like to take two minutes, before we deal with the motion, to tell you some good news.
5:05 p.m.
Bloc
Nicole Demers Bloc Laval, QC
No but last spring, if you remember, my grandson helped arrest a pedophile he had met on the Internet. The pedophile was trying to catch him in his net and assault him. A trap was set for the pedophile, and my grandson helped arrest him. Yesterday, the man was sentenced to 7 years in a federal prison and 10 years under very closely monitored probation as a dangerous offender. I wanted to tell you this. I'm extremely proud of my grandson.
5:05 p.m.
Bloc
5:05 p.m.
Bloc
Nicole Demers Bloc Laval, QC
Even if Quebec does not apply mandatory minimum sentences, he was sentenced to seven years in a federal prison. So this means that it works.
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
Sylvie Boucher Conservative Beauport—Limoilou, QC
Nicole, I'm going to tease you a little bit because I love you very much. For once the Bloc Québécois is doing something! Oh, oh!
5:05 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
All right. We have a notice of motion by Nicole Demers. It reads as follows:
Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), that the following be reported to the House at the earliest opportunity: That the Committee call on the government to respond to the report of Amnesty International and the United Nations regarding the hundreds of young Aboriginal women who have disappeared or been killed over the past 30 years.
Now we've opened it up. As per usual, Madam Demers will begin. She will speak to her motion and then we will have a discussion. At the end of the discussion, Madam Demers will close the debate.
5:05 p.m.
Bloc
Nicole Demers Bloc Laval, QC
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
I am making this motion today because I'm extremely concerned by the situation in first nations communities, particularly with regard to women and especially young women. In Kitigan Zibi, right near here, in Maniwaki, two 16 and 17-year-old girls disappeared in September 2008. However nothing has been said about them, either on television, radio or in the papers.
A 16-year-old boy disappeared in the Saguenay region last spring, and we're still talking about it today. The search is ongoing. It's being talked about on the radio and television. I don't want to take away the right of parents whose child has disappeared to advertise their disappearance, but I think there is a lack of balance. Something needs to be done. It is not normal for young women, no matter what their profession is, to disappear or be killed and for there to be no investigation.
With regard to this file, Canada must be equitable, fair and responsible. We need to take measures, investigate, to prove to first nations communities, to whom we apologized last year, that they deserve to have the same rights and same freedom of action as everybody else, that they can go anywhere they so wish. At present, they do not have that right, and quite often they feel lost as soon as they leave their communities or reserves. Something needs to be done.
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
Bruce Stanton Conservative Simcoe North, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair.
There is no doubt that the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of the young aboriginal women—and I presume from the motion in front of us here that the report refers to the loss of young aboriginal women in Canada. It doesn't specifically say whether that was on an international dimension or as it relates to Canada.