Thank you, Chair. Thank you all for coming.
This is, indeed, a very important study that was undertaken. I, too, am an advocate of the CPP system. It's a model for the world. I wasn't aware of those statistics that you brought forward about what happened in the early 1960s. However, I should add at this point that all pension plans should follow the CPP model. The reason we're running into all these problems you mentioned is that we put our pension plans at risk when we move in another direction. I'm an advocate of following the example of CPP.
We had a number of witnesses before us, I believe it was last week. I don't have the statistics in front of me, but we talked about ratio to workers and to retirees. I believe back in the 1980s I was seeing something like 7:1, and now we're moving towards 6:1. What was most shocking was that by 2050 we're looking at a 2:1 ratio.
I understand that the Canada Pension Plan works in such a way that it's funded by contributions. I believe a segment of that is invested, but the majority of it is funded by contributions.
We all want better things for our seniors. The only thing I can see is that if we as a government, as a people, were to significantly raise that contribution.... I guess I want to ask--and it might not be a bad thing--both you, sir, and possibly labour, if they would go on record as saying that we need to raise the contribution by workers. If anybody else wants to jump in, go ahead. I mean, that's the first. We have to start at that point.