Madam Speaker, it is important to save for the future, as they say. Think of the ant and the grasshopper. Some things never change.
I have looked at pension contribution rates all over the world.
I was just looking at an OECD report from 2013. In fact, Canada has some of the lowest contribution rates in the world. If we look at Austria in 2012, it is around 22.8%. Estonia is 22.8% as well. In France, it is 16.7%, and even the United States had a contribution rate in 2012 of 10.4%. Mexico, really our only competitor in North America, has no contribution rate and essentially no pension plan or protection for their workers.
I really believe that we have to help our citizens save for the future, and that is one principle that I think people who are old and young can get behind. There is an old proverb, in fact, which is to look to the future; believe in the present but also have the foresight to look to the future. It is also in the Bible, with Joseph and the pharaoh saving for those lean times.
Therefore, I hope the member can realize that, in fact, what we are trying to do is to make a better future for all Canadians, thinking very long term, for seven generations.