Mr. Speaker, I have listened to this debate now for a couple of days. I have heard how much things are going to change for the better in our social programs and so on. After almost three decades of overspending by Liberal and Conservative governments, we have amassed $565 billion in debt; that is 565 thousand million dollars. In the last two years this government has overspent its income by approximately $80 billion, adding to that debt.
The Canada pension plan has in it about two years' worth of payouts, about $40 billion, all invested in low yield provincial bonds. The fund, if pensioners were to be fully paid out, would have to have about $550 billion in it, which it does not. It is another liability over and above the $565 billion we owe in operating costs.
If the government is to look at social programming and improve the Canada pension plan, for instance, how will it do that with the burden of a $565 billion debt, a liability in the Canada pension plan and a deliberate plan of overspending? How will it happen without the government coming to the conclusion that something must change, perhaps even looking at premium increases and benefit reductions? Is that what the government will do? How will it get around being held accountable, like the last group that was over there?