Mr. Speaker, I listened with great attention to the member's comments and I would like to make a couple of observations.
One of the key points she made was that the surplus, to use her own words, was the exclusive property of the employees who contributed to the pension plan. I have to give her my perspective on this because I come from a riding where there are very few unions. I do not think there are unions of any size in my riding. In my riding it is mostly small entrepreneurs, farmers, people who are self-employed. They will have contributed to this surplus.
As I understand it, the government has been paying 70% toward this pension plan and the employees 30%. When the government pays money to anything, it comes from taxpayers. Every person in my riding who has been paying taxes and who does not belong to a union has been contributing to that 70% that has been going to this pension plan. In other words, the people in my riding would feel that they do have a stake and as a matter of fact they might even claim ownership of the $30 billion of which we are speaking.
The member also said that the benefits in this whole $30 billion is part of the wage packet of the employees. I point out she also said that the payout of benefits is determined by an act of parliament. We have a situation where the benefits are already determined and we have a surplus that is exceeding by far the amount of benefits that can be obtained by the employees.
Finally, it would appear to me, using that logic, that indeed that $30 billion actually belongs to the ordinary citizens of Canada and not to the union, as long as the union is guaranteed that it does indeed receive the benefits that are part of the contract.