Madam Speaker, today I will address the many deficiencies in the Bloc proposal being debated, and also highlight the important work our Conservative government has done to address concerns surrounding pensions and pension security. Before outlining the numerous flaws in this costly Bloc proposal, we should look at the broader context of Canada's pension system and the actions taken by our Conservative government to ensure it remains sound.
Clearly, all parliamentarians recognize that pension security is a matter of the utmost importance to all workers and a key element in ensuring the effectiveness of Canada's retirement income system.
Canada has a diversified retirement income system based on a mix of public and private pensions. The two public pension pillars, the old age security and the guaranteed income supplement programs, along with the Canada and Quebec pension plans ensure a basic level of income in retirement for Canadians.
The third pillar, tax deferred private retirement savings, includes registered pension plans and RRSPs. These plans provide Canadians with incentives to save for retirement and to help bridge the gap between public pension benefits and their retirement income goals.
Employer-sponsored pension plans are a key component of the third pillar of the retirement income system. The best way of ensuring that pension benefits are secure is to have healthy supervision. Pension benefit standards are a responsibility of both the federal government and the provincial governments.
I note here that only about 10% of all pension plan members participate in federally regulated plans. At the federal level, pension plans are regulated under the Pension Benefits Standards Act and are supervised by the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions.
This retirement income system has been relatively successful when compared to other jurisdictions internationally in ensuring Canadians achieve acceptable levels of income in retirement in order to maintain their living standards.
As was reported in the Toronto Star earlier this week, Canada actually has one of the best retirement systems in the world. This country is essentially tied with the Netherlands, Australia and Sweden for pensioner protection, as measured by adequacy of funding, long-term sustainability of payouts and integrity in management. The survey of 11 industrial nations was conducted by Mercer LLC, one of the leading world corporate benefit consultants, and the Melbourne Centre for Financial Studies.
Nevertheless, all parliamentarians would concede that while our retirement income system is effective and sound, that does not mean we should not be working to improve it further. That is exactly what our Conservative government has been doing.
Since the beginning of the year, we have been looking at ways to ensure that the retirement income system is responsive to the needs of workers, pensioners and seniors, consistent with sound and sustainable policy principles. In January, we released a major research paper on federally regulated pension plans for comment, after which we conducted a cross-country and online public consultation open to all.
Indeed as part of the consultation process, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance, the member for Macleod, engaged with Canadians through public meetings across Canada, including stops in Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Whitehorse and Vancouver. Based on the feedback we received from Canadians, comprehensive regulatory changes to improve the federal pension framework are being drafted and will be released shortly.
Also, we have long recognized the need to work with our provincial partners to examine the larger pension concerns facing Canadians. That is why we raised the issue at the annual meeting of finance ministers in late 2008, and earlier this year set up a joint federal-provincial research working group with respected academic Jack Mintz as director of research to conduct an in-depth examination of retirement income adequacy.
The Minister of Finance has already convened a national summit of his provincial and territorial counterparts for this coming December to discuss the findings of this important group.
Without a doubt, our Conservative government has taken the pension issue seriously and is treating the issues surrounding it in a comprehensive manner.
On the other hand, Bill C-290 falls short in this respect.—