And good bookkeeping too.
On the Canada pension plan, at this time of Christmas and when I think about gifts and being able to provide for the needy, that is what it is supposed to do all year every year from now and into the future, not just the next two weeks over the Christmas break.
The Canada pension plan has to be secure. That is why we want the government to report to Parliament so it can explain to us and be prepared to stand up and justify its figures so that we can see that the job is being done properly and done right.
I understand the Minister of Finance will be bringing forward a budget in February. He is the new Minister of Finance who is also the Deputy Prime Minister, and in the running for the Prime Minister's job. How he will have time to figure out a budget, I do not know, but he said that he will bring one forward. I hope that he explains in the budget how he can justify telling Canadians that 9.9% of their salary for Canada pension plan contributions will be sufficient because I have my serious doubts.
Therefore, in the interest of openness and transparency I would think that the Minister of Finance would be more than willing to go to the finance committee and explain his numbers to let the public know how these projections, when Canada pension plan is losing money, would be able to do the job.
The Canada pension plan allows for some money to be invested overseas which perhaps is not a bad thing. However now we will be turning over even the cash to the Canada pension plan board and I can only hope that is a good thing too. When it loses money on the investment side we hope it can figure out how not to lose the money in the cash account.
I understand that the government's chief actuary estimated that the proposed changes would increase the returns on CPP assets by about $75 billion over 50 years. That is one wonderful projection by presumably a wonderful actuary. If he can figure out how we would increase the return by $75 billion over 50 years when the CPP board could not figure out how to make even a dime over one year because it lost money.
I would hope that we can put our trust in the CPP board as we put our trust in Santa Claus and I wish you, Mr. Speaker, and everybody else a Merry Christmas.