Cathy McLeod

[Petitions, October 27th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, a number of citizens in my riding are very concerned about the state of palliative care and hospice care.

They are suggesting that the federal government recognize its importance and make specific accommodations for it.

[Indigenous and Northern Affairs, October 25th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals have been engaging for over a year, and they have done absolutely nothing.

The First Nations Financial Transparency Act showed that the vast majority of first nations expenditures were reasonable and appropriate. Unfortunately, we now have a list of bands where there is significant concern, from Alexander to Samson Cree. In the words of Sherry Greene, the grassroots people are the ones suffering in the end.

When will the minister get the records out of the department's basement and enforce the transparency act?

[Indigenous and Northern Affairs, October 25th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, the RCMP is investigating how a chief and his family allegedly took $4.2 million over three and a half years. This money was to be used for bands to improve life on reserve but instead went to trips to Cuba and Vegas. The information sat in the department for years, where people noticed nothing amiss. Members only found out about this outrageous abuse through the First Nations Financial Transparency Act.

When will the minister ensure that basic information is easily accessible to band members?

[Canada Pension Plan, October 25th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, that is an excellent point. I was recently in Calgary. I understand that there are 100,000 workers in Alberta who are unemployed right now, and we do not seem to be focused on that as an issue. We have a softwood lumber agreement that has not been signed, and we are looking perhaps toward some punishing trade wars. I could give example after example about creating the jobs we need.

The government said it was going to spend $10 billion to create jobs. It is now at $30-plus billion, and to be frank, we have not seen the job creation it promised with that approach.

[Canada Pension Plan, October 25th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, this is one of the arguments the Liberals have made. They talk about the increase they made to the small business tax and say that it is 1% or 2%. What they do not seem to realize is that if it goes from 9% to 10.5%, that is not 1.5%. That is closer to 10%.

Let me tell the member, who says he is a small business owner, that if all of a sudden his taxes were going up by 10% and payroll taxes were increasing significantly with an increase in Canada pension plan deductions, it could make all the difference in terms of whether the business was a success or could expand.

Do not just take my word for it. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business has clearly articulated that this is a concern for small business.

[Canada Pension Plan, October 25th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to stand to speak to Bill C-26, an act to amend the Canada Pension Plan, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Act, and the Income Tax Act.

What does this really mean, in layman's terms? It means that there would be a phased-in, mandatory, hike to the CPP premiums for both employer and employee. This hike would be as high as $2,200 per employee.

It is clear from this legislation that the government is not only trying to solve a problem that does not exist, in terms of our system, but does not trust Canadians to make decisions about how they best spend their own money. I think, actually, this bill should really be called the “Wynne bailout bill” or “Liberal election tit for tat” because we know that the Ontario government got itself into a really difficult position with some commitments in terms of what it was going to do with the retirement fund, and indeed, the federal Liberals had to come to its rescue.

I am going to give a few examples about the negative impact of this legislation but, first, I will talk about something that is important and that has been a bit lacking in the conversation we have had today. The tools they are going to use are our Canada pension plan and our Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.

Most Canadians are very aware of this pillar of our retirement program, but very few have much of an understanding of the underlying dynamics. Certainly when I was a young adult in the workforce, I knew there was something called CPP that was coming off my paycheque. However, the big rumour at the time when I was initially contributing was that this CPP was going to run out of money so I really had to worry about saving my own money anyway.

That clearly has not happened, but I think we are making assumptions about this plan, and I think we need to pay some attention to this plan and what it is all about.

I do want to draw members' attention to an October 17 article by Andrew Coyne. He raised some really important issues that have, again, as I noted, not been raised in this debate. I am going to spend a minute or two talking about the issues he raised, by quote or paraphrase, because I think they are absolutely critical and they represent concerns I have had over the last couple of years.

The first is that “CPP is supposed to be cheaper than private plans on account of its larger scale”.

Most Canadians have no idea, but costs at the investment board have increased, times 22, over the past decade. They have gone from $118 million to more than $2.6 billion. That is an absolutely enormous increase that has happened over just a short time frame.

At roughly 1% of assets, and that is not counting the distribution costs, the CPP is now significantly more expensive than most private exchange funds. I think the Liberals should be truly alarmed about that. This is something they need to get a handle on.

He goes on to say:

...the CPP doesn’t “help” you to save, it forces you to. If you’re already saving as much as you’d like to, it’s unclear why the government’s judgement should be substituted for yours; or if you’re already saving as much as you can afford to, forcing you to save more hardly makes you better off.

And so far as forced savings are justified, it’s never been clear why they must also be invested through the CPPIB....

The CPP II, as we will call it, is to be fully funded, and there are systemic risks that are associated with the portfolio as a whole. This fund has greatly increased these risks in the last years: 40% are now in private equity, illiquid assets like roads and bridges that are not traded on the public market.

Again, we have a pretty significant increase in the costs of managing this fund, and we have a very significant change in the risk portfolio.

There is nothing wrong with this if, one, all Canadians know what they are getting into; two, they can tolerate the extra risk; three, they have properly priced and accounted for it; and four, the returns are worth it.

The CPP, in Mr. Coyne's opinion, met none of these tests and for the 19 million contributors—perhaps they are like me when I was a young adult—it comes off our paycheques and we really do not know what is happening with the funds.

The first thing the Liberals have failed to do is look at what is happening and what they need to do about it. We should not blindly move forward in giving a greater monopoly to the CPPIB without some careful review regarding the rapidly escalating costs and risks. What we are creating is a bit of a monopoly in terms of forced government savings.

In addition to the concerns I have just raised, and I think I shared some important information, I would like to give a couple of examples of how this forced savings program would have some negative impacts. A lot of my colleagues have shared a number of examples, but I would like to talk about a few more.

Someone I know quite well has a technology firm that is doing exceptionally well, but it was a real struggle when he was getting this firm up and going. When he was first starting, there were times when he was concerned about making payroll. Like many entrepreneurs, he was putting a lot of energy in, but it took a while to see a return on his investment. It is a small company with a few employees.

We already know that the current government has chosen to raise the small business tax, so even if he was lucky enough to make a little bit of money, that was going to go up. That is money, typically, that would have been reinvested in the business.

Now he would also have, with 10 employees, an additional cost, and it could be $10,000. That $10,000 could be reinvested in the company to make it bigger and help it become successful. With that $10,000, perhaps the employees and the employer might have preferred to have some stock options. The employees could believe in the company, and in terms of their benefits packages, might think they would have more advantage with some other structure for receiving remuneration. Clearly, for that new business that is striving to make it, this is a measure that is going to create some real challenges.

I have some relatives, a young couple, who have been saving for their first home. They both graduated from university and are saving for their first home. They live just outside of Toronto. They had the down payment and were all ready to go, then all of a sudden, the mortgage rules changed. Now that the mortgage rules have changed, they do not qualify for the amount they need to purchase this home. Not only has the government changed the amount they are going to have to raise for a down payment, it is making it more difficult for them to save. They were putting a couple of thousand dollars a year away to pay off their student loans and buy their first home, but all of a sudden, they are going to have to divert some of the money they have chosen to do something else with into the CPP, the mandatory payments.

I could go on and on with examples of where this legislation is going to create a challenge.

In conclusion, I think the government is fixing a problem that does not exist. We have heard clearly that it does not exist. It is forcing Canadians to do something that perhaps is not their priority. We have entrepreneurs who could take that $1,000 a month, who are investors, who might have something else they could do with that $1,000, whether it is their own investment portfolios or investing in their businesses.

The Liberals are going to negatively affect the economy, and they have not fully assessed, in any comprehensive way in recent years, the escalating cost and the risk. I think the Liberals of today are very different from the Liberals of before. When CPP was first introduced, and we have heard this in the debate already, Judy LaMarsh, in 1964, stated:

It (CPP) is not intended to provide all the retirement income which many Canadians wish to have. This is a matter of individual choice and, in the government’s view, should properly be left to personal savings and private pension plans.

The Liberals need to really reflect on the path they are going down, and we should all have very significant concerns.

[Indigenous Affairs, October 21st, 2016]

Madam Speaker, I think a reality check is needed here. An audit at Alexander First Nation identified $2.1 million in unexplained payments. As the former CFO said, “You take those concerns to Indian Affairs. Indian Affairs says you have to go back to the chief and council. You bring it back to chief and council it gets swept under the rug. You go to the RCMP, you've got to have proof. So they spin our people around.”

When will the minister ensure that band members have access to basic financial information that all other Canadians enjoy?

[Indigenous Affairs, October 21st, 2016]

Madam Speaker, the current government's paternal and top-down approach to financial transparency for first nations must come to an end. If the Liberals are not enforcing the First Nations Financial Transparency Act, they are breaking the law. The minister told the House on Monday that if band members want to know how their chief and council are spending the money, they just have to ask her office.

Why are the Liberals forcing band members to go to a government department to receive information that should be readily available in the community?

[Canada Pension Plan, October 21st, 2016]

Madam Speaker, the government is making a number of policy choices that are intersecting and will create a huge issue for our young adults in Canada.

First of all, on the Liberals' decision around housing, millennials will now have to save more to have a down payment for a house. They are also going to have an increase in terms of their CPP. They will have to pay the cost of a carbon tax on fuel. Then they're going to have a debt to pay off in 20 years that is going to be astronomical.

I would ask my colleague what the impact to our millennials and our young adults in this country is going to be in terms of this intersection of policy choices.

[Canadian Human Rights Act, October 18th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, as the bill goes to committee, there is going to be some great opportunity for a more intense look at both the pros and what some of the challenges might be with this particular piece of legislation.

There is no question that those issues will come up in committee as they look at it. Perhaps the committee will have some thoughtful suggestions that come back to the House as a result of the more intense look at all the ramifications.