Mr. Speaker, those are some good ideas. I sit day in and day out on the human resources development committee that decides some of these things, or at least we like to pretend we do. I think some of those ideas should be considered.
This would be a system whereby people feel they have real ownership of their plan, where they know that the government is not going to abscond with the money and do with it as it pleases, a system whereby they have a real sense of ownership and a sense of pride and an ability to put more in if they like and an ability to have it roll over and become part of their retirement income. I think those ideas are bang on. I wish we could make the changes necessary to do that.
I see government members across the way who sit on the HRD committee as well. I hope they give those ideas consideration. Money right now is going toward employment insurance. Students and some self-employed Canadians have no ability to collect on the fund. With the high premiums that are charged to everybody else there is little likelihood they are ever going to see back in a given province or a territory the type of money they have put into it. If they had the ability to put that money into their own type of fund and therefore draw out what they needed when times are tough, whatever surplus was left, whether it is $300,000 or more, with they would be able to roll that over into a pension fund. Would that not be impressive?
It would be a great incentive for them to want to make sure they maintain the funds in their own private fund. It would give them a real nest egg for retirement, something totally unlike what we have with the Canada pension plan.
Chile has a plan where people feel they have a sense of ownership. They brag about the benefits of that plan.