I understand the principle behind a pension insurance system: the desire to avoid situations like that of Nortel led to talk of using bankruptcy legislation to protect pensioners.
I think that idea is even better, however, because we could set up a system where the Canadian government would guarantee pension plans. From what I understand, under such a system, people would pay into pension plans and those plans would be monitored more closely because there would be a sort of insurance policy.
We were talking about that earlier, an insurance policy. You work for that your entire life, and then you lose everything because of economic conditions. It gets even worse: women—and they are our focus today—are in even worse situations.
I think that would be a major asset. These are social choices we are making. We are talking about doubling the pension plan, doubling contributions, going from 25% to 50%. When we decided to create a healthcare system in Canada, you will recall that we had a nationwide debate. In Winnipeg, the debate was quite heated: doctors were against it; insurance companies were against it; basically, everyone was against it. This debate will be similar because we are talking about similar proposals.
I think that a government that stands up for these measures and an opposition that supports the government will help to make great strides. Yes, we will make progress; women will make progress, and that is what counts.
You can laugh at women on the other side all you like, but there is an urgent need to act on this issue. And we need to adopt positions that lead to better conditions for them.
I would like to hear your thoughts on the status of women in the few minutes remaining.