Mr. Speaker, I am glad the member across the way has touched on the CPP tax hike fiasco because it gives me an opportunity to illuminate a little more on that subject.
When the government of the day first brought CPP in, it said that it would be a fund that would never rise above 5% of somebody's salary. Paul Martin Senior, the father of the current supporter of the plan, said that it would only cost a couple of hundred dollars a year. Now the government has the gall to go ahead and tax Canadians the thousands of dollars that it does, 10% of their income, double what it was initially said to be. The government members of the day made promises on the stumps back in 1966. They talked about how it would never rise above 5% and today we look at something that is double what it was and they say “trust us again”.
And the Liberals say that those funds flow to the CPP fund. Once again, can they not gloat with pride when they have a $500 billion unfunded liability? That is according to their own numbers. I do not like to trust government numbers very much because they often prove to be inaccurate. The Fraser Institute puts it at a trillion dollars. Split the difference somewhere in between or cut it down the middle. Seven hundred and fifty billion, five hundred billion, one trillion, it is a lot of money. For them to stand with pride today in the House and say that those funds only go toward the CPP fund with a $500 billion unfunded liability, shame.