Mr. Chair, I appreciate the opportunity to start tonight's take note debate on retirement income security and pensions. Being someone of such young and tender years, I am sure you are going to enjoy all of this discussion that we will be having here tonight, because rest assured, we are concerned about your future as well.
Tonight's debate is another illustration of how important this issue has become and remains for all Canadians and all parliamentarians. As I have said before, while we may not always have the exact same solutions to these issues, I would like to think all parliamentarians share a common desire to help seniors and retirees in Canada for today and for tomorrow.
This is not a simple or straightforward issue at all. As we have seen in Parliament, especially this past year, there are widely different aspects of this issue. They include everything from private sector pension plans, taxation issues, bankruptcy legislation, the levels of public servants' pensions and much more, all equally worthy of our attention. To be sure, this past spring, the finance committee, of which I am a member, conducted a study on the broad subject matter of retirement income security. In those hearings, we heard the wide range of concerns associated with this issue, concerns that touched countless areas and multiple jurisdictions.
Personally, this is an issue I have had the honour to spend the last three years or so working very closely on, as the finance minister's parliamentary secretary. I know how truly important it is to Canadians. I have conducted town halls. I have chaired round tables. I have read countless handwritten letters. I have spoken directly to thousands of Canadians personally. I heard the personal and heart-wrenching stories. I heard the emotion and the anxiety in the voices of the people telling them. I know how important this issue is to them and the generations of Canadians that will follow, and our Conservative government knows how important it is that we address this, but we also know how important it is that we get it right.
Despite what some might say tonight, there are no quick or easy solutions. The federal government alone cannot find or be the only solution as well. The government action alone, in the absence of personal responsibility, is not the solution. We cannot pretend otherwise. We have to look at the issue from all angles, always aware of the implications of solutions that we may propose, implications on not only those directly affected, but also those indirectly impacted and the larger Canadian economy. We also must always involve Canadians through open and public consultation when exploring this issue. It is too important to exclude Canadians from this discussion.
Since 2006, those are the broad objectives our Conservative government has strived for as we worked to improve the lives of seniors and retirees in Canada, not only for today but for tomorrow as well. This has included everything from our work to reform federally regulated private pension plans to landmark tax relief for seniors and retirees and, most prominently of late, our work with the provinces and territories to address this issue in a collaborative and pan-Canadian manner.
With respect to our work with the provinces and territories, it has been based on both extensive, factual research and open, public consultation. Indeed, there has been extremely good co-operation over the past few years, as we have been able to narrow down what we think can work and what merits more study.
We also ruled out ideas we collectively determined cannot work. For instance, along with our provincial and territorial partners, we examined the notion of creating another supplemental, government-run pension plan. The verdict was unanimous. This was not a good idea. Ontario's Liberal finance minister, Dwight Duncan, has firmly and publicly rejected the supplemental plan as “very costly to set up and administer”.
Indeed, during the finance committee study and elsewhere, we have repeatedly heard the same concerns from academics, labour and business.
For instance, the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants came out strongly against the supplemental plan, and said, “We believe that such initiatives would require the inclusion of significant incentives, costing deficit-laden governments scarce funds, and would further complicate the system”.
Labour unions have been equally dismissive. For instance, the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada told the finance committee that a supplemental plan would not work. It said, “As regards supplemental pension plans, our union experience shows that people do not spontaneously or easily contribute to a supplemental pension plan, even when the offer is attractive”.
It is little wonder even my Liberal colleague on the finance committee, the member for Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, dismissed the idea. To quote him, “The only thing that will happen is that the people who have the money will voluntarily put it into the CPP, so I don't think we'll solve the problem”.
I am confident that the spirit of co-operation and progress will continue later this year when federal, provincial and territorial finance ministers meet in my home province of Alberta in my riding of Kananaskis in December.
As I have said on numerous occasions, if we really want to tackle this broad issue as a federal government, we have to work with our provincial partners. The fact of the matter is that the overwhelming majority of pension plans in Canada, over 90%, are provincially regulated. Nevertheless, while the federal government cannot act on larger matters without our provincial partners, we can and have acted decisively on matters of exclusive federal jurisdiction.
First and foremost, last year we conducted the most comprehensive review of the framework governing private pension under federal jurisdiction in over two decades. We started that process back in January 2009 when we released a major research paper on federally regulated pension plans for public comment.
As our Conservative government believes that the Canadian public has the right to have their voices heard on this issue, we invited and listened to all who wanted to make their voices heard through public town halls and online consultations from May to March 2009.
Based on the tremendous feedback we received from Canadians from coast to coast to coast, we released the most comprehensive reforms in nearly 30 years of the federal pension framework.
Among those key reforms is: requiring an employer to fully fund benefits if the whole of a pension plan is terminated; establishing a distressed pension plan workout scheme under which employers, employees and retirees may negotiate changes to the plan's funding requirements; permitting the Superintendent of Financial Institutions to replace an actuary if they are of the opinion that it is in the best interests of the members or retirees; and, requiring the administrator to make additional information available to members and retirees following the termination of a pension plan.
I am happy to report that those reforms were welcomed and appreciated. Dan Braniff of the Common Front for Retirement Security described them as “an important milestone for creating greater security for many pensioners and plan members”. He thanked us for taking this “very important step for better retirement income security”.
Those reforms represented one of many instances where we took the time and effort to get it right. Our Conservative government will continue along that path. We will listen to the views of Canadians and all parliamentarians here tonight as we work towards a long-term solution to improve the retirement income security of Canadians.