Thank, Madam Chair.
Thank you for being here today.
Before getting started, I would like the committee to send its condolences to the family of the worker who lost his life on the Hill today in the boiler explosion yesterday.
I listened carefully to what you said. However, with regard to the figures in the second table, concerning "Tax filers with annual earnings greater than $1,000," I wonder to what extent that would be significantly different if we put: "Tax filers with annual earnings greater than $10,000." Do you have those figures as well?
Also, in May 2009, the Department of Finance published a news release in which it stated that the federal, provincial and territorial finance ministers had recommended amendments to the Canada Pension Plan starting in 2011. Among the new measures they would like to introduce, there is the main proposal, which is to maintain the contribution rate at 9.9%, but there is also some question of increasing the pension adjustment when a person retires before 65 years of age, from 0.5% per month to 0.6%. So it would be 7.2% per year instead of 6%.
The document also proposes to increase the pension adjustment starting after the 65th birthday, from 0.5% to 0.7% per month, that is from 6% to 8.4% per year, as also proposed in the discussion paper of the Régie des rentes du Québec.
Do you have any projections based those data? If these proposals are implemented, what will the population look like, with regard to women, pension plans and all that?
During this consultation—which is still underway, I imagine—certain women's groups have submitted briefs to ensure that their concerns are taken into account. One of those concerns—my colleague Ms. Neville referred to it—is women at home with children under seven years of age who cannot contribute to a pension plan while they are at home. These women's groups asked that they be granted pension credits equivalent to 60% of maximum eligible earnings.
Do you believe that measure would recognize the "invisible" work of those women and also enable older women to have better pension incomes?