Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak to the group 6 amendments and to the changes to the Canada pension plan and the creation of the investment board.
As a new member of the House, like many other new members of the House, it is sometimes a daunting process to go through a bill such as this and to try to make sense of what the bill is really trying to accomplish and what the impact of the changes will really be on Canadians.
Having gone through the bill and listened to debate in the House and having spoken to the member for Qu'Appelle, who is our expert on this matter, we find ourselves at report stage today with an overriding concern that Bill C-2 will endanger the security of retirement for many Canadians.
The problem with this bill is that it will create winners and losers. We have to ask ourselves who will be the winners in terms of changing the Canada pension plan.
When we look at the bill we see that the winner will definitely be the private sector. It will have a huge financial windfall as a result of increasing privatization. Even the business section of the Globe and Mail took note that the changes to the Canada pension plan were a huge financial windfall for the private sector. The privatization of the administration of the plan will create approximately $500 million in commissions for the private sector. It is unconscionable and should not be allowed to happen.
The section question is who will be the losers as a result of the changes to the Canada pension plan. It has been very well evidenced in debate by witnesses before committee and in motions and amendments put forward that the losers under the bill will be women, people with disabilities, widows, widowers and retirees generally. We have to be very clear and frank about the bill. It is about reducing benefits for people with disabilities, survivor benefits to widows and widowers and the ongoing privatization of the Canada pension plan.
For example, even the 16th actuarial report projects that CPP spending reduction on disability benefits by the year 2005 will be over $1 billion. There is no getting away from that. The changes being put forward by the government in the bill are a clear attempt to reduce benefits to those with disabilities who collect Canada pension.
The reality is that those retirees will be hit disproportionately higher than any other component as a result of the Canada pension plan changes. This raises a serious question about the social equity of the plan and the fact that there will be more losers. It will also create greater hardship or inaccessibility for Canadians with disabilities.
The survivors benefit will also be reduced. The amendments of the member for Qu'Appelle address the issues and mitigate the damage that will be created if the bill goes ahead. Widows and widowers who are disabled will also have reduced combined benefits. This is a shocking state of affairs that needs to be brought to the attention of the public.
The second major concern of the New Democratic Party that our amendments speak to is that the changes in the bill will force Canadians to rely more and more on private arrangements, on privatized pension plans. We need to address the reality of working people who cannot afford to buy into private pension plans such as RRSPs. This is another giveaway to the private sector by privatizing the plan and forcing more and more people into a private arrangement.
There is a very serious concern that the bill undermines and erodes the universality and the accessibility of our public pension plan. If we talk to Canadians in our local constituencies, at community meetings or associations that represent seniors, they all tell us that one thing they have been proud of in this country is the fact that we have stood behind and strengthened our universal accessible pension plan over the years.
We now stand at a moment in history where that universality and that proud history of Canada are about to be changed forever if the bill goes ahead without the critical amendments that have been put forward.
The bottom line is that this crisis has been deliberately staged to undermine the credibility of the Canada pension plan, as we move toward more and more privatization, and to create a huge windfall for the private sector.
The amendments of the New Democratic Party balance the scales and ensure that Canadians who pay into the Canada pension plan and rely on it for the future will not be losers.
The motions before the House today deserve our serious consideration if we truly and genuinely believe we want to protect, strengthen and enhance our public pension system. If that is what the bill is about these motions must be approved, but we have a great fear that what is at work here is the government's agenda to create winners and losers, to further provide privatization of the Canada pension plan, and to erode the universality of the plan.
I speak in favour of the amendments proposed by the New Democratic Party. It is an important set of amendments that will seek to mitigate the damage being created by Bill C-2.