Mr. Speaker, I want to say a few words on the private members' bill put forth today by my good friend from Mississauga.
First I compliment him on the work he has done on this issue over the last few years. I thank him for the copy of his book. He has put a lot of work into this issue. We should all commend him for the extra parliamentary hours he puts into this very worthwhile issue.
I am sure the member remembers that back in November 1990 Ed Broadbent was retiring as leader of the federal New Democratic Party. The last speech he made in the House as leader was one in which he talked about a need to eradicate poverty among children. I remember that very well. He was sitting about three or four seats over to my right. He made that speech. There was general consensus in the House of Commons that it was a very laudable objective which we should strive for in the next decade. That decade is almost over. We have less than two years to go before the new millennium and we probably have more child poverty now than we did in 1990. We have regressed rather than progressed.
That is a sad commentary on our country, a country with tremendous wealth and tremendous abundant resources. We are extremely fortunate that our country has all these resources. It is like a beautiful necklace of jewels and gold, the resources that are here in this country. Yet we cannot organize it in terms of public policy to make sure we bring children out of poverty and give them an opportunity and a chance. That has to be a very laudable goal and a very laudable objective.
I certainly agree fully with the member across the way that investing in children should be an objective not just of this parliament but for all of us in Canada, the provincial legislatures, the Parliament of Canada, the municipalities and likewise because the future of the country is our children. If we do not invest in opportunities for young people, we are going to have more crime, more unhappiness, more unhealthiness and more social problems.
They are laudable goals and objectives. The member certainly has his heart in the right place.
The member talked about the specific amendment to the tax act and the Canada pension plan. Again his heart is in the right place but I have some questions on whether or not this is the only area that we should move on.
This will enable a taxpayer to make a tax contribution to the Canada pension plan on behalf of a non-income earning spouse. More often that would be the female rather than the male. If we looked at this economically and ran it through a computer model, we would find that this bill would benefit only a small segment of our population, mainly the higher income part of our population. That is the part of the population which may have one spouse working and can afford to contribute into a tax benefit program in the Canada pension plan on behalf of the other spouse.
My riding is comprised in part of the inner city of Regina where there are a lot of low income folks. In those kinds of homes where only one person is working, probably nine times out of ten, maybe 99 times out of 100, the spouse cannot afford to make a contribution, tax credit or not, to the Canada pension plan of the other spouse.
It is a bit like the spousal RRSP which is a very good idea for people who can afford it. It has helped a lot of people and we do not deny that. We are not saying that we should tear it apart. But when we look at the facts, we find that the spousal RRSP helps in a great preponderance of cases the higher income people who can afford to make that contribution. Someone who hypothetically makes $80,000, $100,000 or $200,000 a year, and whose spouse is not working can easily afford to maximize his or her own RRSP contributions and then maximize the spousal RRSP.
With the change in the Income Tax Act as proposed by my friend from Mississauga South, they could max out in terms of the taxable contribution to the CPP on behalf of the spouse.
These are some of the problems I have with the bill before the House today. I suppose the bill would have been more equitable back in the 1950s and 1960s when there was a greater preponderance of one wage earner households, back in the days of Archie Bunker and Leave it to Beaver when the only person working in the family was the male. In those days it would have covered a wider sweep of the population. Again it does not mean the member's heart is not in the right place.
What do we have as alternatives? The main alternative is to make our pension system more progressive and more encompassing to cover a broader sweep of people. Instead we now have a federal government which for new seniors, for people who have turned 60 after December 31, 1995, wants to abolish the old age pension, the guaranteed income supplement and the tax credit for seniors and replace them with what is called the seniors benefit. The seniors benefit will be determined by a means test. In other words it is going back to the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s before we had universal old age pensions. The pensions are taxed back from the wealthier people based on a progressive taxation system.
The current old age pension is a monthly pension that most Canadians are entitled to. Those benefits are taxed. They disappear for single seniors whose incomes are higher than $85,000 a year. If they make over $85,000 a year, there is a claw back. This was brought in in the Mulroney days. The old age pension is taken back by the government. For a couple, that pension disappears after they earn more than $170,000.
There is a progressive scale here. Everybody is entitled to it but the more money you make, the less you get. When a single person makes $85,000 a year, they stop getting the old age pension. When a couple makes $170,000 a year, then they receive no old age pension.
In addition to that, there is a guaranteed income supplement. It is a supplementary benefit that is not taxed and is there for only the low income old age pension recipients. A poor person in this country, and I represent a lot of them in the city centre and small towns in my riding, can receive the maximum guaranteed income supplement along with the old age pension. The GIS is not taxable but the OAS is taxable. It is a fair system. It is a progressive system that is geared to helping those who are the most in need.
Regrettably what is happening is that this system is going to be abolished. We are going back to the past. There will be a means test. People who make a few dollars will not receive an old age pension or the seniors benefit while those who make a few less dollars will receive part of the seniors benefit. Starting from dollar one, a person will be judged as to whether or not they qualify for the seniors benefit.
That is the concern I have with some of the details of the bill we are talking about today. The member is going in the right direction in terms of his heart and is being very thoughtful, but again I think we could put the money into a more progressive pension system.
In addition to that, this House just recently voted on the Canada pension plan. It made it a more regressive plan. It upped the premiums by 73% over six years. It cut down what people will receive from the plan during that same period of time. It particularly hit widows and people on CPP disability, again going in a regressive way.
It is a sad commentary to have those things happen from a Liberal government that at one time had a proud heritage of being compassionate, caring and progressive in this country.
I see the member from Hamilton across the way hanging his head in shame at the regressiveness. This government is more conservative than Brian Mulroney back in the 1980s. It is no wonder the member from Hamilton is hanging his head in shame. He used to be a progressive Liberal. Now he is to the right of Brian Mulroney in destroying the old age pension in this country.