Madam Speaker, I think it behoves the hon. member for Vegreville to acknowledge those areas in which the government has made substantial progress.
Specifically the member talked about the debt and the deficit. I sat in this Chamber through five budgets of the previous government and saw threats, promises, cutbacks and sacrifices so that we could get the deficit under control. The deficit just kept going up.
Our government in just two budgets has been able to substantially reduce the amount of the deficit. The hon. member knows very well that in the next two budgets we will have dropped not from 6 per cent of GDP in deficit to 3 per cent as we committed at the last election, but to 2 per cent, in other words not by 50 per cent but in fact by 66 per cent. That will bring the deficit from over $45 billion when we took office to $17 billion by the time our term is over.
Regarding pensions, this is the first government since the MPs pension plan was introduced in the 1950s that has actually reduced it to the tune of $3.3 million worth of savings to Canadians. It has reduced the benefits by over 20 per cent. We have met every single one of our commitments on that matter and have gone beyond them.
Yes, it is still a very generous pension plan. It is one for which, as the member knows, MPs pay very generously as well, far more than most other pension plans. It needs further reform but one cannot disrupt the lives of people who have served in this House for decades by suddenly saying they do not have the pension plan they thought they had.
In terms of the sustainability of pensions generally, 75 per cent of seniors in this country live on incomes of under $26,000. Ninety per cent of the poorest seniors are women who are either single, widowed, divorced or separated.
I regret as much as anybody in this House an end of a universal pension plan which is an entitlement of citizenship. I also realize the necessity of looking after those lowest income seniors when resources are limited. I am pleased that we are going to be increasing benefits to those lowest income Canadians in retirement.