Madam Speaker, my friend has it completely wrong. I spoke in favour of RRSPs but what has happened is that my friend is talking about programs and confusing it with getting results.
I wonder if my friend knows that in Canada today the average savings rate is zero. We can have all the programs in the world but if Canadians are taxed so heavily that they cannot put money aside, they will not use the programs. They will not be able to put money away to the degree that they should. The average savings rate in Canada today is nada.
Maybe my friend did not hear this, but at the beginning of my speech today I pointed out that Don Drummond, a former deputy finance minister who served under the Prime Minister when he was finance minister, produced a report in January that showed that take home pay in Canada has gone up only 3.6% in 15 years. We have to do a better job. The member should not confuse announcing programs with getting results for Canadians.