Mr. Speaker, one thing all of us in the House need to be absolutely clear on is that this is not politicians' money. I hope my colleagues in the NDP realize that. This money belongs to the people of Canada. They work hard for it and they want to retire on it with some security. They do not want it to be played with for political purposes.
Why is the Canada pension plan in such a mess? Why do we owe $600 billion when there is not a nickel anywhere to pay it? It is because of philosophies like this, that somehow we can use this money, we can play with it, we can benefit from it and there will be no price to pay down the road. There is a price to be paid. It will be paid by our children.
Unbelievably, we have a party which is arguing passionately in favour of continuing to repeat the mistakes of the past. I hope there is not one more member of the House who would support such nonsense.
The Canada pension plan represents a second national debt. We have to do everything we can to pay off that debt. It is a disgrace. It represents a real threat to the security of our future and to the well-being of our children. Yet we have a group of people saying let us continue to use this money to bail ourselves out when we get in a jam. Let us continue to use this money with a lower rate of return. The people who entrusted us with this money could get a better rate of return under prudent management.
This kind of philosophy has failed us miserably in the past. One of my gravest concerns about this whole scheme is that we are going to create a huge investment fund, with billions and billions of dollars in it, and we are going to have politicians like these saying we need to do this, that this is a different kind of investment, that maybe we will not get as much money out of it but, boy, it is really important that we make these kinds of investments. It is an investment for the future. Maybe we will not get a good return on it, but it is an important investment.
This is not our money to play with. This is money which has been entrusted to us by hardworking Canadians who hope to retire on it. We had better give them the very best management we can possibly give them and forget about all the other nice things we could do with this money.
I wish we had unlimited money. I can think of at least a hundred things that I would do tomorrow if I had an unlimited pot of cash, things that would help a lot of people. But this money does not belong to the politicians and it should not be treated that way.
I am very concerned about the political risk that is being posed to our hard earned retirement investment before it even gets going. I wonder as a middle-aged Canadian whether this kind of thinking will be the death of my retirement hopes and those of my children.
Someone has to pay. If money is loaned at low rates, someone has to make up the difference. There is no way around it. It will have to be made up by paying the extra money which should have been earned or it will be made up by receiving lower benefits because the maximum return was not earned. Yes, all these nice things are being done but that does not give us a secure retirement.
Let us not support amendments to a bill which would in any way, shape or form suggest that this money belongs to the politicians. The money belongs to the people. It is their retirement fund. They had better get the best, most secure retirement they can possibly get or there will be big trouble in the future.