Madam Speaker, there was quite a bit there. The member talked about the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. The board is appointed by the cabinet of the Liberal government. He talks about its record. My point in talking about Canadian investment is that it cannot exceed the 30% foreign investment limits that we are all governed by.
If the hon. member was listening, my point was that the Canadian market for such a big investment fund is rather a small market. Countries, such as Chile, after about 15 years of having investment by people in their individual RRSPs or in retirement funds, decided that it was too small a country in terms of overall investment and it needed to spread it across investments outside of Chile. That way the risk was not quite so high. If it suffered a major downturn in its economy it was spreading the risk.
It seems to me that when there is $48 billion, and it will rise rapidly, dumped into the Canadian market in terms of where it will be invested, it does limit the ability to spread that risk. That is the point I was making.
In terms of the provinces buying into this, the provinces have benefited quite a bit in the past. There have been low interest loans from the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board that the provinces can still maintain. In fact, the provinces get to roll this whole thing over one more time if they wish in order to buy. That is the rule of the Bill C-3 legislation. Some of the interest rates the provinces are paying, unlike what the member talked about of a 6% return, is more in the range of 1.5% to 2%. The provinces have had a pretty good deal out of the Canada pension plan in the past. Maybe it is not in their interest to change that with these low interest rates.
I would think that the member would want to look at the dynamics of what is happening to our aging population and how we will address the issue of how we will have retirement income for young people in the future. This is the major concern I have and it should also be the concern of the members.
The former chief actuary of the Canada pension plan recognized the problem of having retirement income for our young people in the future. He recognized that the 6% or the 5.8% that was going into the Canada pension plan fund in terms of deductions was not enough and that it had to be raised. In fact, it was raised to 9.9%. The former chief actuary suggested that it still would not be enough and most people agree that it will fall short.
I know the Liberal government is pinning its hopes on the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board to make good investment decisions to make up some of that shortfall.
The member says that the board is at an arm's length from government. Crown corporations are at an arm's length from government and the Export Development Corporation is one of those. In fact, members cannot get information from the EDC because we are told we must go through the minister. Some of their investments are falling pretty flat these days. They are subject to too much political interference or the possibility of political interference on who to invest in.
We all know that the Liberals have some favoured corporations in Canada that have funded some of the campaigns of the major politicians in the House today. The Liberals continue to fund those corporations.
Our concern is that these investments will not necessarily be made with the best interests of Canadians in mind. It might be in the interests of those corporations and the Liberal government. That is our concern.