Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to rise to debate this bill, which we hope will be something that the House adopts as legislation. I want to congratulate my friend from Calgary--Nose Hill for bringing this bill forward. This is an excellent initiative.
The idea behind it is simply this. It is the member's opinion and my opinion that in a modern government it is very important to have checks and balances on government. In a world where people are less than perfect, we all know that from time to time people tend to play fast and loose with the rules in some cases. In some cases they tend to use things that are designed to serve the public for their own benefit, either their political benefit or, in some cases, even their personal benefit.
We know very well that even today there are a number of people who have been dismissed at Human Resources Development because of allegations surrounding their misuse of taxpayers' money. The police are involved. We have the Liberal Party being investigated for problems with their Quebec wing having to do with funny dealings with the use of taxpayers' money.
So it is entirely appropriate that we look for checks and balances, for ways to ensure that money designated for a specific purpose is used in a very specific way.
In this instance, what we are talking about is sort of a derivation of that. What we are talking about is ensuring that information about pools of money that belong to the taxpayers is true information, that the information is not coloured by people who want to play politics, who are concerned that if there is less money there than they would have the public believe it could somehow harm them politically.
I want to remind the House that there is an incident that really drove all of this, which my friend from Calgary--Nose Hill referred to in her speech some time ago. It goes back to 1998 and the chief actuary of the Canada pension plan.
I should mention that what we are proposing is that there be an independent chief actuary, that the person who oversees the Canada pension plan account is an independently appointed actuary, someone who makes judgments based only on actuarial science. What we do not want is somebody put in place by an elected official, somebody who can be influenced by that elected official in such a way as to colour their judgment and colour their reporting of what is actually going on, in this case with Canada pension plan.
The incident I was referring to goes back to 1998 when Bernard Dussault, the chief actuary of the Canada pension plan, was preparing to bring forward his report on the state of the Canada pension plan. We believe that as he was preparing to do so he was about to reveal that in regard to the hike in CPP premiums the member for LaSalle—Émard, the finance minister at the time, brought forward, which raised CPP premiums from 5% of salary up to 9.9% of salary, the minister was understating how high the premiums ultimately would have to go historically in order to curry political favour. We believe that the actuary at the time, Mr. Dussault, was about to report that in fact there were not significant or enough reserves in the CPP account to cover the outlay of benefits through that period of time in our very near future, when we are going to face a very big crunch when it comes to handing out CPP benefits to millions of baby boom Canadians who will be hitting their retirement years.
We found it very suspicious when we heard the premiums were going to 9.9% and not 10%. It sounded like a price point to me and I think a lot of people had that suspicion. As I recall, at the time there were a lot of questions asked.
It seemed very obvious that Mr. Dussault was going to report that in fact the reserves were not adequate and that the premiums would have to go higher than the member for LaSalle--Émard, the former finance minister, had indicated. As a result of that, a few weeks before he was about to report, he was fired. We think that was very suspicious. We think it was politically motivated. We think he was going to report that the finance minister was being less than forthcoming with the real state of the Canada pension plan and therefore he was let go. That is unbelievably dangerous. It is a threat to all the various types of funds that governments set aside supposedly for the well-being of the public.
There are many examples of where governments have raided funds, such as the employment insurance account where the government raided $45 billion out of it. It is now at the point where Canadians are understandably disturbed that they pay very high premiums into what is essentially a fictional account only to find out that the government has taken all the money, has already spent it, and there is no big, fat reserve sitting there for that time when ultimately the economy will go into a recession again and there will be lay-offs. That money will have to come from somewhere.
People have cause to be concerned about the fact that governments play fast and loose with accounts. They play fast and loose with numbers. Therefore we want an independent authority not appointed by the finance minister in this case or by the government of the day, but somebody appointed independently and who sits, like the Auditor General for instance, at arm's length from government. They would be an officer of Parliament, somebody who would make judgments on these types of things and not have their independence called into question. Frankly, I think that is what occurred with the firing of Mr. Dussault a number of years ago. This motion is entirely appropriate.
There are other examples too. The public service pension plan was raided a number of years ago. If I recall, $20 billion was taken out of that account. This is another example of how governments again play very fast and loose with other people's money for political benefit. The government used it to pay down some debt and that kind of thing which everyone is in favour of because we want to pay down the debt, but is it really appropriate to raid other people's money to go ahead and do that? I would answer no.
We need people in place who are independent, professionals in their field, who are officers of Parliament, and who can make judgments about these things that everyone will respect and nobody will question their independence. That is what is missing right now when it comes to the chief actuary of the Canada pension plan and some of the other pension programs.
That is what we are asking for. In a day and age when we see far too many ethical problems in the government, to pass this motion would send a very powerful and positive message. That is why I encourage members on all sides to give this some serious regard. They should think of it not only as passing a motion that is good in and of itself, but they should think of it also as a way to reaffirm some confidence in Parliament at a time when there are a lot of ethical questions out there about how Parliament spends its money and how it conducts itself.
This is a chance to flatter Parliament. It is a chance to show that parliamentarians can do something in the interests of Canadians and do something to voluntarily limit their own ability to politically influence those people who should be at arm's length from government.
Let us strike a blow in this case for a check on government. Let us strike a blow for what is right and correct for all Canadians.