Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present a petition on behalf of many of my constituents on the statistical error made by Statistics Canada in its calculations of the consumer price index when calculating the rates for hotel rooms.
This error resulted in Canada's inflation numbers being underrated by half a percentage point since 2001, thereby causing anyone whose benefits are tied to CPI, including recipients of the Canada pension plan, old age security and the guaranteed income supplement, to be underpaid by a compounded half a percentage point a year, losing benefits totalling an estimated amount of approximately $1 billion.
The petitioners call on Parliament to take the required steps to repay every Canadian who was shortchanged by the government because of this miscalculation.