Madam Speaker, the second petition is from a number of seniors in my riding who are concerned that Statistics Canada made a major error in its calculations of the consumer price index. That resulted in Canada's inflation numbers being underrated by half a percentage point since 2001.
This mistake affects anyone whose benefits are tied to the CPI, including recipients of Canada pension, old age security and the guaranteed income supplement. They have been underpaid by a compounded half a percentage point a year, thereby losing benefits totalling over $1 billion for the seniors of Canada.
The petitioners call upon the Parliament of Canada to take full responsibility for this error and take the required steps to repay every Canadian who was shortchanged by a government program because of this miscalculation.