Mr. Speaker, I am concerned about the distribution of survivors' benefits under the Canada Pension Plan.
A surviving spouse can be either a legal or a common law spouse to qualify for the survivor's benefit. A common law spouse must have been living in a conjugal relationship for at least one year. This is controversial because often a common law spouse gets all the survivor's benefits after a brief relationship. Meanwhile the legal spouse who was part of perhaps a much longer relationship gets absolutely nothing. This is just not fair. The government has already established the principle of dividing pension credits.
In 1978 provisions were introduced into the CPP providing for the division of pension credit on divorce or annulment. In 1987 this was extended to marriage breakdown resulting from separation.
I urge the government to apply this principle to split survivors' benefits for legal spouses. Surely if this principle is sound for one, it is sound for another.