Mr. Speaker, the member does not want a pension, she wants a pay increase. The commission said that at this time perhaps the ideal situation would be to give a better salary to MPs and reduce their pensions. However, at this time the salaries of bureaucrats and all other government employees in Canada have been frozen.
Members of Parliament and the public service have had no increase for the last three and a half years. Perhaps in the package they were overpaid in terms of pension but they are certainly underpaid in terms of salary. The balance is pretty good for those who are very good members of Parliament. In my judgment there are very few members on my side who are not earning every cent they are paid.