Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his two-part question. I will attempt first to deal with the first part.
What is being done here is to bring the foreign property rule into line with other pension plans. It is a question of consistency. It would not make much sense at all for the CPP to have a different set of rules than other plans. Canadians are not even close to taking up the full 30% of the foreign property rule. Some Canadians say that we should relax that completely and eliminate the 30% rule, but I am not so convinced. First of all, I think there is a lot of room right now to take it to 30%. The counter-argument of course is that Canadians should have the ability to decide where their investments are made, in Canada or offshore. I have a certain sympathy with that argument, but if it is going to be subsidized or supported by the Canadian taxpayer we would like to encourage that kind of investment in Canada.
The member is quite right when he says that markets in Canada have performed very well. I think that if we have a sound investment board it will take those factors into consideration. It is not really for us to try to second guess what the board will do. If the domestic market is outperforming foreign markets, then presumably the board would make those decisions in the best interests of all.