Mr. Speaker, I have just completed a series of town hall meetings in my riding about the desperate state of Canada's social programs.
Constituents were dismayed to learn that in just 15 years current social safety nets plus interest may consume 100 per cent of federal spending. But what upset them most was the fact that they are getting ripped off worse than they thought by the federal government.
They thought they were paying into the Canada pension plan as an investment for their retirement. But because of government mismanagement, the CPP fund is short hundreds of billions of dollars which means that contributions are little more than a payroll tax.
Constituents want to know why the Minister of Human Resources Development did not address the CPP problem in his discussion paper. They wonder why the minister is not moving away from the present debt ridden social welfare state.