Mr. Speaker, it is worthwhile noting that while given 20 minutes to speak on this subject matter, the member for Calgary Southwest devoted barely half of his speech to the subject matter on the Order Paper which reads in part: "This House condemn the government for requiring
Canadians to pay over 70 per cent more in CPP premiums-," and so on.
It is a fully misleading statement. The fact that the hon. member would devote half of his time speaking about tainted blood, misuse of justice, integrity of government, ethical standards rather than addressing the subject matter of the Canada pension plan demonstrates how thin and how poorly researched his subject and his speech are by the people who prepared it for him.
Obviously the member from Calgary does not know his subject and the people who prepared his speech for him today ran out of steam in dealing with it, so much so that he had to fill up the time available to him with other subjects which are not contemplated in the motion.
The member from Calgary is trying to mislead Canadians by convincing them that there is a 70 per cent hike in the Canada pension plan contributions. I would like to ask the member for Calgary Southwest whether he would use his ability to go through the proposal that has been approved by the 10 provinces and the Government of Canada and verify for himself that the 70 per cent figure is totally wrong. The reality is that the increase for the employee goes from 2.9 per cent of pensionable earnings in this year to 3.5 per cent in 1999 and gradually to 4.9 per cent by the year 2003.