My colleague says, “Of course you do”. Everyone should support this. The changes recommended will strengthen the protection aspect of the Canada pension plan.
My colleague talked a lot about investing locally. Nobody has a problem with investing locally within Canada. However the board has the responsibility of creating and protecting a fund for every Canadian as he or she reaches retirement age. It has to ensure that there will be something there at the end of the day. If we invest for investment's sake and not worry about the return on the investment, then I am afraid our future will be very insecure.
If we look at the history of the Canada pension board, which goes right back to the work done by the Diefenbaker government and eventually it came into effect, there were concerns about the amount of funds within the fund to deal with more and more people who were coming on stream.
As we advance through the years, we have more people involved in the labour force and more people are paying into the fund. However we are reaching the stage where a bulk of retirees each year are starting to draw from the fund. We have to have a good board investing wisely with proper transparency and accountability. If we do what the NDP suggests, invest locally for the sake of investing and not worry about the return, we might help local industry somewhat and local business but we could ruin the pension plan. We have to be careful. We can keep that in mind and invest where there are good investments and good returns on those investments.
If we do not get good returns for our investments, down the road there may be nothing in the fund. Whereas right now under the present plan with its present direction and if things go well, in 50 years' time the plan will be the greatest investment in Canada itself.
Consequently, the direction set is good and the work is good. The bill will tighten up the protective measures even more. With that, we support the bill and we think it is a step in the right direction.