Status of Women Committee on Oct. 20th, 2009

[Cathy McLeod, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

As I've listened to my colleagues' comments, I think a few things really stand out. On the idea of the divisions of pensions and divorce, which Ms. Neville mentioned, I think it would be great to have some more data there.

Ms. Mathyssen had some discussion regarding people working as Wal-Mart greeters, perhaps when they're 65. That was portrayed as not being something that people choose to do. I guess there are times when people enjoy some jobs in their retirement and find taking on these tasks to be very much in keeping with.... It would be interesting to know how much of it is choice and how much of it is supplement.

As my children are heading into the workforce, we're trying to encourage them to save money for their retirement right from the start. Is there a difference in, let's say, comparable income--it's $20,000 now and it's $40,000.... Is there a change in how the new generation is saving for retirement when they don't have plans? Is anything done there?

[Ted Wannell]

It's something we could look at with the tax data, for sure, if you're interested in, say, RRSP contributions as well as our RPP coverage, but I'm not aware of any study that has done it.

[Cathy McLeod, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

I have a quick question, for my own knowledge. I understand there's some way within CPP they recognize time but not contribution. Could you clarify for me the child-rearing years? How does that work?

[Grant Schellenberg]

My understanding of the CPP--and if there are HRSDC people here, they can correct me if I'm wrong--is that the contributions are based on years of earnings, but that there is a formula to exclude years of low earnings or non-earnings; I think it's your seven lowest years of earnings over a 35-year period. That's excluded from the calculation of retirement benefits, recognizing the likelihood that women, for example, are likely to be out of the workforce.

[Cathy McLeod, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you, Cathy.

Thank you very much. We could keep you here for another two hours. This is very, very interesting.

You will get a note from the clerk, obviously, asking you for some data that everyone wanted, but Ms. Guarnieri wondered if you could provide us with any data to support the answer to her question, which was specifically about when a woman loses a spouse. She talked about her six-month interim, and you said that you noted it was later on and not in the immediate time after the loss of a spouse. Do you have any data to support that? She wanted to know. If you have, could you send it to us, please?

Secondly, I think Ms. Wong and Ms. Hoeppner wanted the work on the general survey in 2007, about how near-retirees may be lacking in financial information, and also perhaps the retirement plans and expectations of non-retired Canadians between 45 to 59, which you did, Mr. Schellenberg. Those are a couple of the things, but we will send you other information later on.

You did not give us any information on women in the unpaid workforce other than the fact that obviously they probably receive survivor benefits, OAS, and GIS. Is there a way to get any information on that, or is that really all that is available to them? If one wanted to look at ways to value unpaid work, would one have to come up with a brand-new policy? Is there no data on that?

[Grant Schellenberg]

There has been work done at Statistics Canada in the past, by Dr. Leroy Stone, on the value of unpaid work. As for where that research stands now and what he concluded at the end of that, I'm not sure. I'm sure there are some documents summarizing what he has done that we could send over.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Van Kesteren.

[Dave Van Kesteren, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON]

Madam Chair, I asked if they could also give us statistics on the ratio between private and public between men and women. Could they could provide us with that?

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Yes.

Thank you very much.

[Grant Schellenberg]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

We will suspend now.

[Proceedings continue in camera]