Mr. Speaker, our government's aim is to prevent a crisis, the kind of crisis that we have seen hit in Europe, where government expenditures on pensions climb as high as 14% or 15% of GDP. That is almost equivalent to our entire government spending on all of our programs combined. We are trying to prevent that so we can make sure that programs are affordable for current Canadians who are retired and those approaching retirement and indeed for future generations. That is the responsible thing to do. It is long term and I realize that, but we have to take a look at the long term. That is our responsibility.
In the House of Commons on February 8th, 2012. See this statement in context.