Mr. Speaker, Bill C-78 amends various acts, essentially replacing words such as spouse, wife, wives, widow, et cetera with survivor or survivors. In this 200 page bill which has about 231 clauses, the word survivor is mentioned 249 times. Of course it is defined in clauses 53 and 75.
The government's backgrounder on Bill C-78 states: “To ensure that the government's pension package for its employees is in keeping with the opinion of the courts, survivors benefits will be amended to extend survivors benefits to same sex partners”. However, in 1995 the supreme court ruled in the Egan case that an opposite sex definition of spouse in the Old Age Security Act relating to spousal benefits was reasonable.
In the hon. member's opinion, why is the government ignoring this supreme court decision?