Mr. Speaker, it is important that whatever we do with the Canada pension plan is fair to the present beneficiaries of the plan who were promised a pension, who paid in good faith and who now in many cases have done their financial planning on the basis that they would receive the promised benefit.
It must also be fair to the people who will have to pay the costs, to the people who are now being asked to double their contributions into the plan for no greater benefit, for actually less benefit than they were promised, for less benefit than present beneficiaries receive.
Our plan would simply take measures to top up the unfunded liability in the plan by sensible means. There are many of them. We are exploring several, even though we are only the official opposition and do not nearly have the resources of government.
It is clear the government is not getting on with the job with the resources at its disposal. It is incumbent on someone to make sure that the people who are receiving their benefits will continue to do so, and at least to make sure that the amount of money left to go into the benefits of younger generations will give them the maximum bang for their buck.
All we are promising them, as I said in my speech, is that those entering the plan now will get a whopping 2.5 percent return on that huge investment.
If the premiums were invested over 30 years or 40 years at normal market rates of return and managed by proven money managers, the return would be incredibly higher than the government is proposing to give younger Canadians.
Why not at least let them get a maximum return while still protecting the current beneficiaries? It does not make sense to ignore that proposal.