Mr. Speaker, I would like to express our support for one of the amendments proposed by our colleague from Qu'Appelle last week.
This amendment proposes a sliding scale for contributions by self-employed workers.
Under this amendment, a self-employed individual earning $25,000 would contribute less than another such individual earning $60,000. The amendment would therefore resolve one of the most serious problems in Bill C-2 for the self-employed.
As my colleagues for Madawaska—Restigouche and Saint John pointed out last week, these workers, who represent 18% of the workforce, must bear the brunt of combined contributions. With a contribution rate of 9.9%, self-employed workers do not have myriad calculations to make. They know that they have to contribute $9.90 for every $100 they earn.
When you realize that 45% of these workers, and there were 2.5 million of them in 1997, earn less than $20,000, you understand the importance of the amendment immediately. We are talking about over 1.1 million Canadian workers. Given the fact that the growth in self-employment is far greater among women, there is even more reason to support this amendment.
As currently worded, Bill C-2 has a significant negative effect on women. But this we should have expected from a government that has no concern about the effect of its policies on women. In fact, in the initial discussions on the proposed changes to the pension plan in 1996, nothing was said about the impact of these proposals on the income of women who would be retiring.
However, almost all the proposed changes affect women more than men. Let us look, for example, at the freeze on the annual basic exemption. It affects mostly those with low incomes, and this category of worker is made up primarily of women.
Women, therefore, generally make less than their male counterparts. For example, women working part time earn only a portion of what full time workers make, that is, between 69% and 72%. Furthermore, 28% of women, compared with 10% of men, work part time. They also tend to retire earlier, with up to 25% of women taking their retirement at an average age of 52. They also live longer. The life expectance of women is 80.9 years, as compared to 74.6 for men. This means that they will have to make do longer with lower benefits than men.
In 1995, senior women received on average $274 per month in benefits, while men received $477 per month. Add to this the fact that there is a much higher risk of becoming a widow than there is of becoming a widower. Also, there are nine times more senior men than senior women who remarry.
One last point. Women are not covered as well as their male counterparts by employer sponsored pension plans. And many of these plans do not provide any survivor benefits, the survivors being mostly women as I said.
The cumulative effect of all these factors precludes women from setting funds aside for the many years of life they have remaining.
The government should not have the power to make changes to such a fundamental and important program as the Canada pension plan without first explaining their full impact to the people of Canada. Also, there is nothing in here to ensure that they will be treated fairly and equitably.
We, in the Progressive-Conservative Party, believe in equity for all. Since equity is also a major concern in the public at large, it is essential that an equitable contribution scale be provided for in Bill C-2.
This way we will be fair, at least to some extent, to those who account for more than 52% of the Canadian population: women. This is also a way to recognize the work and important contribution of the men and women who now make up 18% of the Canadian labour force, that is to say self-employed workers.