Madam Speaker, in the last 10 years the CPP fund would have made $13 billion more than it did if it had been invested in government bonds rather than in a diversified portfolio of equities, real estate and bonds.
Why are CPP investment managers being paid millions of dollars in bonuses based on any of the time periods, one year rolling, four years or ten years? They have not been producing value-added returns above risk-free bonds. In the past four years they have not achieved the returns required for long-term sustainability of the CPP.
David Denison earned a bonus of $2.3 million and the Conservative government said that there is nothing it can do about it. The government said that it should not interfere with investments made by the board. The rules are there so that the managers do not get influence on individual investments, but there is no rule against our making a rule saying that they have to invest in fixed term investments as opposed to equities. The government should look at making a broad rule stating that the board has to stay away from equities. I believe the government could actually replace the board if it wanted to do that.