Mr. Chairman, here we are getting into an area that is a little complicated. For MPs who are in the plan, we had a difficulty. I am talking about the MPs who are in the plan, not the ones who were grandfathered. An MP who is in the plan qualifies for a pension at age 55. Say that MP was defeated at age 52. Because the MP had six years of service, they would be pensionable. Therefore, they would no longer qualify for the severance. But, of course, the MP did not get a pension because he or she was not 55, so they ended up getting neither.
This is as a result of the change that we made in the pension plan some four years ago to place the threshold at age 55. At that time a companion change should have been made to the severance.
What there will be now is a phase-out to ensure that someone does not resign at age 54 years, 11 months and 29 days in order to collect both. There would be a phase-out for people in the pension plan.
If an MP ceases to be an MP and is out of the plan—and I understand there are some 48 at the present time—the MP in question would receive, if the person is less than 55, six months severance and, at age 55, the supplementary severance plus the interest at the crown rate that I described a moment ago in answer to a question from the member for Vancouver North.
I believe that answers that scenario. I do not know if there are any other scenarios possible. I guess there is always the one of the MP, like myself, who is in the plan and has contributions at both the old system, the grandfathered one, and the new one. Because I would be collecting a pension right now, of course I would not get a severance at all.