Mr. Speaker, I am surprised the member across the way would say what he said.
I said that the plan that was instituted back in the 1960s had a pay as you go philosophy. That is exactly how it was set up. I know it was kick-started and pensioners qualified right away. My father got a small CPP payout fairly early from the plan, as did other people of his generation. The whole philosophy was pay as you go.
It was changed by the amendments in 1997 when it started to move away from a pay as you go pension plan to having some of the money set aside for an investment fund that would be directed by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. There was a change in philosophy and we debated that in the finance committee at the time.
The Alliance Party, which was called the Reform Party in those days, wanted to go even further. In essence it wanted to privatize the Canada pension plan fund and set up huge RRSP type funds. It would be taken out of the public sector altogether and everybody would have their own private pension fund or private pension plan that was totally in the private market. That was the debate in the finance committee at the time.
The Liberal government came up with changes which were a bit of a compromise, where more money is going into the investment board to be managed. Now it wants more and more money, some 30%, to go into the foreign markets. There is a change from the pay as you go philosophy which was there in the beginning by the people who originated the Canada pension plan in the days of Lester Pearson and Tommy Douglas.
When I talk about stakeholders I only mentioned two stakeholders. The member said how many stakeholders do I want on the board? I mentioned the workers and the retirees.