Madam Speaker, with your permission, I would like to split my time with the illustrious member for Palliser.
This morning we have the third reading on the debate on the Canada pension plan. This is a chance to wind up, to sum up what has been happening in the last while.
The Canada pension plan is a plan that we as a party have supported since its inception in 1966. We believe it was a great piece of social legislation that has had a profound impact on reducing the poverty of seniors in this country. Any way that you look at the statistics from 1966 to 1995, you will notice that the number of seniors living in poverty has dropped rather radically. That is the only segment where the poverty statistics have changed in the last 30 years to any significant degree.
If we look at child poverty, for example, there has not been an improvement. Conditions on Indian reserves have shown no improvement and in the inner cities there are the same problems. However, there has been a vast improvement in the living conditions and the incidence of poverty among seniors in this country. That is why we are so concerned about protecting and enhancing the Canada pension plan in future years.
It is a pay as you go scheme. In other words, people who are working today contribute to the fund so that people who are retired can draw a pension in recognition of the work they did in the past and the contributions they made. I believe this is a good plan, a good way to go.
I believe in this country and in the people of this country and I believe that we could have the strongest economy of any country in the world. If that was the case we could have a very strong and healthy Canada pension plan which would be funded for years and generations to come. When I look at this and the economy of this country, I am optimistic that we can and will do better.
My concern and the concern of our party about the changes to the Canada pension plan is that it has become more regressive. It should be more progressive and based more on the ability of people to pay and receive benefits in accordance with their needs. However, with these amendments it has been made more regressive. I will get to that in a minute or two.
In summarizing the debate of the last couple of months, the second concern I have is the position of the Reform Party. It wants to abolish the Canada pension plan, get rid of this plan, tear it apart, privatize it and bring in super RRSPs. But members of the Reform Party cannot answer the fundamental questions of how that could be done and what we would do with a $600 billion unfunded liability.
That is going to be a very important issue as they try to push this right wing, neo-conservative agenda of theirs to privatize, abolish, get rid of the Canada pension plan and set up a private scheme which would be good for the wealthy, the bankers and their friends who have money. That is a big issue, one we are going to face when this thing is reviewed again in the year 2000.
The Reform members are talking about tax grabs and all the negative things about the Canada pension plan. That does not reflect what the Canadian people want. They want a strong, public plan like the Canada pension plan, but a more progressive plan.