Mr. Speaker, as has just been pointed out, I too think that the group 6 motions drive the cost way beyond what Canadians can bear.
I want to go back a little bit into the history of this whole thing and also use a few quotes from some of my constituents that might give a better focus on where grassroot Canadians really stand.
In 1966 government made a contract with Canadians basically stating that it would provide a pension when a person reached age 65. We believed that, went along with it and everybody dutifully paid their 3% or whatever it was and thought that government would take care of them. Obviously mismanagement and a poorly designed plan caused the situation that the government finally realized it was in last year. It found out that it had an underfunded liability and had a real problem. Obviously some of the amendments we are speaking about here would make that problem even that much worse.
I think Canadians realized this problem much sooner. They knew this plan was not working and could not work. They were not dreamers but, as often happens, the people are so much ahead of government that we are only now catching up. The only solution that the government has put forward is a 73% increase in the premium tax which is going to be collected.
There are a lot of other ways to solve this problem and I will try to touch on some of those briefly. Basically, when you talk to the people on the street, they will tell you that this is an extremely important bill. They know what is happening. They know about it and can talk very intelligently about the changes to the Canada pension. They will tell you that it is a $10 billion tax grab. They will tell you that they are already taxed at the highest rate in the G-7 and just cannot afford any more taxation. They will tell you that the self-employed person is just going to buckle under this sort of an increase. They will tell you that this is going to cost jobs and probably more jobs than even some of the critics of this would point out.
They are also extremely concerned about the setting up of an investment board with 12 political friends being appointed to this and the potential abuse that this could create. Remember, people do not have all that much respect for political choices in our past history.
For the young people who are looking at this plan, the message is pretty well standard. They do not believe they are really going to get any Canada pension plan. They do not really believe it is going to be there for them. In fact, if the government is going to collect an extra $700 from them and their employer and only give them $8,800 some 30 years from now, that is just not realistic. It will not sell and is not acceptable to the Canadian public.
They look at the other options of what they can do with that same amount of money if they were to invest it privately. I believe that this change in CPP can be equivalent to what the GST was to the PC Party. I believe this is its Achilles heel and the public will react when they find out what the politicians have done to them.
Let me give a summary of some 4,000 letters received in my riding. First, “My husband and I are very concerned about the proposed CPP hike. We are a young couple expecting our first child and we feel that it will be very difficult for us and many people of our age to pay the proposed tax increases. We also feel that it is unfair that we be forced to pay this seeing as we have no hope of ever receiving the Canada pension plan ourselves”. I believe that summarizes what young people are saying.
The amendments that we are talking about here that say we are going to increase those premiums even more are even that much less acceptable for the Canadian public.
Middle aged people are saying “What about our children? Our children are having a tough enough time as it is”. They are concerned about the killing of jobs. They are concerned about what this means. They still feel they have time under an optional plan to that being proposed by the Liberals.
The seniors are saying “We also are concerned about our children and our grandchildren and what it might mean for them”.
I believe that we have across the range of ages genuine concern about Canada pension and what the future of this is going to be. The sad part is that the government will not even look at the options. It has made no attempt to look at other countries to see what they have done.
The list is quite long but if we take a look at countries that have adopted a different kind of a pension plan, in that list we would include Chile, Australia, Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, El Salvador, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Uruguay, Great Britain. All of these countries have gone to a different form of Canada pension.
Surely this government owes it to Canadians to look at the other options. It should take a look, see how they work, find out what happens. When it was suggested in the committee that the committee bring the designer of the plan in Chile, who 16 years ago put their plan together, the committee was refused to have this person come and testify before it.
This is letting down Canadians. Canadians have the right to find out what all the options are and to have open discussion. Of course, the use of closure on this sort of debate also is not accepted very well by the Canadian people. Again, I remind the members on the other side that this is not going to be looked on any more kindly than was the GST.
We have a lot of misrepresentation. We have a finance minister who says “Feel good, be happy, everything is fine now”. We all know that is not the case. We know that we have a $600 billion debt. We know that we are paying $50 billion in interest payments in a year. Just think what we could do with that $50 billion in terms of pensions, in terms of our social services. All of those are there but they are not accessible to us because of mismanagement of the previous two governments.
In conclusion, the Liberals are taxing the soul out of Canadians. They are going too far. This Canada pension is going to be for some the final straw. It is going to drive the economy underground. It is going to cause small businesses to close. The government is going to use this as another tax increase to opt out of the system.
The Liberals are taxing our food, they are taxing our homes, they are taxing our savings, they are clawing back from senior citizens and people are losing patience with them. That is the message we have to get out.
These amendments simply go one step further in that tax and spend philosophy that seems to be so common or possibly the disease which people get when they come into this place.
It is time to say no. Canadians need to speak out and let the government know what they think about Canada pension.