I think having a national summit on pensions or a national summit on gender equality and women's full participation in the economy would be a grand thing. I would definitely want to be there. I'd send some cards and ask you to invite me.
Seriously, though, I think this is a huge issue. It impacts every single person in this room, regardless of whether you're a member of Parliament or not. I know some of you have daughters, sisters, or mothers who are definitely impacted by the fact that if they worked as a secretary in a law office or even if they were a lawyer, they didn't have a pension plan.
I have to be really honest. When I was a young public sector worker, I didn't think I'd live to retire. There was sort of this arrogance of youth that I was going to move to a different job and do something else. Obviously, I did move to something different, but I'm certainly happy that I was a public sector worker and that I was obligated to participate in the superannuation plan. I'm very grateful to the Government of Canada for having the foresight to come up with a national superannuation plan. And I look at people I work with and I know that they feel the same way.
I think that in our current society we like to individualize collective problems. I find that tendency to be quite scary. We have an obligation to look after our old and our young. Those of us who are able to, can go and work. We can hopefully earn a living wage. But for those who can't, we need to be able to take care of those people and to ensure that they can provide for themselves and for their offspring.
Our plan is not a perfect plan. It still has shortcomings. I talked about if you relocated with your spouse and you've got a job that's not a high-paying job.... Let's face it, most public sector jobs are not the jobs we read about in the newspaper, where people are making huge sums of money. Most public sector jobs are people earning in and around $40,000 a year and trying to support their families on that.
If you come back to work after a leave and you've got to pay triple superannuation for three years so that you can buy back three years' worth of leave without pay, and you're paying back the employer's portion, your portion, and your current portion for working, odds are you're going to opt out of buying back those three years. That has a direct impact on people as they get old, and on their ability to look after themselves. And then it's society, be it the gains supplement.... We all pay again for it, and at the cost of their dignity. And human dignity is a critical part to a full participation in society.