Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to begin my speech today and I suppose I will be able to continue it the next time we resume.
I certainly echo the sentiments that have been expressed by many members here today. It is regrettable that we do not have an opportunity both to debate the issues that are before us in the House, but also to enter into a full debate with Canadians across the country, the people in our ridings. We should be asking them how they feel about the pension plan, the allocation of the funds and the Liberal government.
Even though we know the funds are there as a joint venture of contributions by the members who are in the pension plan and by the taxpayer as their employer, it is regrettable that the government chooses to simply take all of the money and not give back a part of it.
I find it interesting, for example, that we had a bill not long ago sponsored by the Minister of Finance in which the question of pension fund surpluses for the private sector came up. In that legislation, an agreement had to be reached before the pension money could be divided up. Clearly neither side would get 100% in that because the other side would not agree to it. Why can we not have something like that here? It is because the government is so stubborn that it will not consider that we need to debate and amend the bill so that it is consistent with the wishes of Canadians.
Speaking of the wishes of Canadians, I want to get to the topic of this particular group. The amendments in Group No. 2 primarily have to do with the definition of the surviving spouse. This is being changed in all of the acts which are affected by the superannuation procedures of the employees of the government.
This change in the definition of spouse just sweeps across a whole bunch of different acts in a very pervasive way. I know there are some who will say that this is not what is being done here. They will say that they are not changing spouse, they are just adding a definition of a survivor to it. The fact of the matter is that it is effectively being changed. This is quite contrary to the wishes of Canadians. It is certainly contrary to the wishes of the people in my riding. It is contrary to the wishes of people in the House.
I remember shortly after the election in 1993 we had a debate in the House on a private members' motion. The motion dealt specifically with benefits for partners in a same sex relationship. The motion was soundly turned down.
Madam Speaker, I see you are giving me a signal because it is 5.30 p.m. I presume I will be able to finish my speech when this resumes.