Madam Speaker, now that we have that cleared up, as I was saying, the Canada pension plan is about protecting today's seniors and about ensuring that we in the baby boom generation pay our fair share toward the Canada pension plan.
It is about handing down a viable public pension system to our children and grandchildren. It is about a society that believes we have an obligation to use our national wealth to look after one another and ensure the dignity of each and every citizen.
I am proud to be part of a government that shares those values and I am proud to support this incredibly important piece of legislation.
While the Canada pension plan has been a major success story, we recognize that changes are necessary in order to keep up with the changing world. We are well aware of the challenges facing the Canada pension plan. I think it is obvious to Canadians, but let me reiterate what they are; an aging society and the prospect of telling our children to pay almost three times as much as we do for the same benefits. Obviously, the demographic problems have been there for a number of years.
We just heard the leader of the fifth party speak of what a nasty government the Liberal government is for bringing forward these changes. Well, the reason we are bringing these changes is because the Conservative government in previous Parliaments, and one that I sat in 1988 to 1993, knew of the issues and the problems we were facing and yet nothing was done.
As members of the House and as a government, we decided that it was time to engage and consult with Canadians, and that is exactly what we have done. The message that Canadians gave us was loud and clear. Canadians told us to preserve the Canada pension plan as a public and universal retirement income plan.
They told us to leave the standard retirement age at 65. They told us to preserve disability benefits. They told us not to penalize people who leave the workforce for a time to care for their families or to upgrade their education. They told us to make better investment decisions and increase the return on the CPP fund. They also told us to protect people already in the system.
I am proud to stand here today and tell my constituents that we have delivered. The legislation before us today meets the priorities expressed by Canadians and the agreement on the Canada pension plan means that the public pension plan will be preserved for future generations. It means that seniors will continue to benefit from a secure and guaranteed source of income. It also means that as a baby boomer, I am not telling my young children to pay more and more to support me in my retirement.
This is the emphasis that we wanted to make in the House today and this is the emphasis that was placed in the negotiations and discussions that we had with the provinces.
It is important that the people at home are aware that these changes that are being made to the Canada pension plan are not being made by the Government of Canada alone. It is in fact an agreement with all of the provinces. In order to achieve a major agreement of this kind, the Canada pension plan requires the agreement of at least seven provinces.
In order to be able to stand here and talk about the Canada pension plan changes today, we were able to obtain the agreement of eight provinces as well as one territory. As members know about federal-provincial relations, that in itself shows the tremendous support that Canadians have for their public pension plan and the tremendous support that all levels of government of various political stripes place on preserving the Canada pension plan.
In other words, most representatives of the people believe in and are committed to the Canada pension plan. I realize that some of my colleagues across the floor are ignoring their constituents on this, but I will come back to that.
Beyond the historic achievement of reaching an agreement between us and so many levels of government, what have we accomplished? We have ensured stable and secure funding for the CPP. Yes, contributions will rise to 9.9%. However, that is a lot better than the 14% that we would have to pay to make this pension plan and the rate stable over the long period.
Increased contributions will allow us to build a large reserve fund and instead of lending it to the provinces at a bargain basement rate, a professional and independent management board will invest the funds in order to maximize returns.
I want to return a little bit to what the opposition is saying in the House. It is important to note, if I can, that the Tories did nothing. In fact, if they would have done something between 1984 and 1993, we would not be standing here having to talk about it. As a matter of fact, I sat on one of those committees between 1988 and 1993 where we reviewed what the Canada pension plan needed to have done to it and the Tories basically decided to do nothing because they were afraid of the political consequences.
We now go to the Reform Party. The Reform Party calls our CPP proposal a tax grab. What it does not tell Canadians is that its scheme would cost individuals even more. What it does not tell Canadians is that its scheme would eliminate disability benefits and that it would penalize people who temporarily leave the workplace to care for their children.
The opposition does not tell us that its system would leave each and every Canadian completely at the mercy of the stock market. One bad year at the age of 64 and all of a sudden your savings are all gone.
Most shameful of all of the opposition's rhetoric on this is that it has not told us how it would cover the cost of benefits of current seniors as well as the outstanding liabilities for contributions people have already made. That is the problem we have with the opposition. If the opposition wants to criticize that is perfectly legitimate. That is what oppositions are intended to do.
However, it is not to suggest that what we are offering Canadians is a lot worse than what they are suggesting when in fact we know the opposite is totally unacceptable.
This change and improvement in the Canada pension plan in making the contribution rates stable for years to come is going to be one of the most defining moments in this government's mandate. It is also going to be one of the most defining moments for young Canadians. As a young parent myself, I think it is important for us to realize, if we look at the billions of dollars that we are going to be saving young people in the long run by fast tracking the premium increases now, we are doing the future generations a big favour by what we are doing today.
I want to emphasize again in closing that we on this side of the House take this very seriously and we are very pleased to see that this issue is finally behind us and we can carry on with other improvements to the values that we so cherish.