Mr. Speaker, I rise in the House today because I wish to speak to Bill C-78, an act to establish the Public Sector Pension Investment Board, to amend the Public Service Superannuation Act, the Canadian Forces Superannuation Act, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Superannuation Act, and other related acts.
We are opposed to the bill now being debated for several reasons. First, because it is another indication of how this government manages the public purse, under the Minister of Finance, by helping itself here and there to any surplus, however small, and using the money to fund all sorts of projects, often in areas of provincial jurisdiction.
We are opposed to this way of doing things. We saw what happened with the surplus in the EI fund. The government helped itself to it. Insurance means just that. There must always be money left in the fund for hard times.
The Employment Insurance Act was amended so heavily that it became extremely difficult for people to qualify for benefits. They are subject to all sorts of investigations, which are fine in the normal course of things, but which often deprive those looking for work of the system they used to be able to rely on.
The amendments to the Employment Insurance Act have gone too far. Surpluses were used to pay down the deficit and to fund other programs as quickly as possible with no regard for the foundation of the EI fund system.
With what happened not too long ago, one has every right to be concerned and to say “It is no better to keep taking money from the surpluses in other funds”.
The surplus in the public service plan is about $15 billion. It is $2.4 billion in the RCMP plan, and $13 billion in the Canadian forces' plan. This adds up to $30 billion, which are going to be used to pay for programs or reduce deficits here and there. The thousands—I repeat thousands—of workers who paid into the plan are getting shafted.
Currently there are around 275,000 Canadians and Quebeckers who have been contributing to the plan. There are 160,000 retirees and 52,000 surviving spouses.
Instead of helping workers, using the interests generated by these surpluses to improve their working conditions and their wages, the government decided to do something else, saying “From now on these surpluses will be part of a fund managed by the government. The government can dip into it as it sees fit, without any regard for the very reason the pension funds were established in the first place”.
When we speak about public service employees, we speak mostly about women since they are the majority in the public sector. We are talking about employees who earn about $30,000 a year and get an average pension of $9,000 a year. These are not people earning above the average, far from it. They are people who might be in need of that $30 billion in the surplus to improve their living conditions, instead of seeing the money taken away from them.
In recent years these same employees have had all sorts of things done to them. They may seem to be a pretty tough lot, but beware. The women public servants may be patient for a time, but when that patience runs out, watch out, for they have had enough of being snubbed, after all the pay equity business.
There are people in my riding who have been waiting for years to see this problematic issue of pay equity solved. When there has been no solution to a problem for more than 10 years, this suggest the problem lies with the ones who are supposed to be finding the solution.
They were told that there were court decisions pending and we would have to wait and see what the outcome would be. There was even a decision pending in the private sector. So the public sector could not make a move because that could have a major impact on the private sector. All of these judgements have been brought down now, and the issue could have been solved.
It is true that several billion dollars are at stake, but that is because nothing has moved for years. Had the problem been settled at the right time, one year at a time, the figures would be far less and people would not be left with the same impression. There would not be these huge sums to be given back to public servants, because they would have been treated properly all along.
The matter is not yet settled. People are still waiting. I do not know if they are Waiting for Godot, like in the play, but they are definitely still waiting, and the money keeps piling up. The workers are getting older, some are already retired. Imagine what a few thousand dollars would mean to these people who have been waiting 14 years to get it and who are receiving $9,000 a year in pension benefits. These people have never earned enough money to brag and say “We are on top of it”.
These people have been and are still being treated unfairly, because they are still waiting for a solution. Now the government is picking on these same people, by taking the surplus in their pension funds and in some way jeopardizing their secure old age and the future of their pension plan.
My hon. colleagues have talked about the government using and abusing closure. Of course, we live in a democracy, and our role in this place is to represent our constituents and defend their interests by opposing bills that could hurt them.
A lot of my constituents work for the government. Even if that were not the case, it would still make sense to me to defend the constituents of my colleagues and even those of the government members.
When we want to address numerous amendments in relation to a bill, closure is brought. This cynical government rises and says “The debate is over”. This is what gagging the opposition is all about.
In this parliament, the government has resorted to closure more than 50 times. It might as well tell us right from the beginning if it does not want us to talk. We have something to say on each of these amendments.
There are things that are disturbing and one of them is how little the government cares about its employees. I am thinking in particular about public servants, because they form the largest group. We can identify with them more, since we have worked a lot with them on recent bills, and particularly on the pay equity issue. Still, this does not keep us from also caring about Canadian forces and RCMP personnel.
It is somewhat alarming to see that ordinary citizens count for so little. By citizens I also mean women, many of whom work with great dedication in the public service, that is for the government. They are watching us today and wondering how far this will go.
The government helped itself to the surplus in the employment insurance fund—public services also pay employment insurance. Now, it is helping itself to the surplus in their pension funds. There is no end to this. And, as I said, but I can never say it often enough, the government has not even settled the very sensitive issue of pay equity.
I will conclude by asking for the unanimous consent of the House to move the following motion:
That all government members, since the government has imposed time allocation on consideration of Bill C-78, at report stage, be prevented from speaking during today's debate on this bill.