Status of Women committee  Certainly there are a couple of points. With the CPP, there are, of course, joint federal, provincial, and territorial consultations. So the two orders of government are in discussion about that and have to be in agreement. With respect to the relations between federal programs and provincial and territorial programs, nationally we have OAS and GIS in place and the provinces are well aware of those programs.

Status of Women committee  Certainly the consultations of this committee and any other committee are important for informing the work the department does. We have just gone through a tri-annual review with the Canada Pension Plan and the next round won't be done for three years. We have a budget-making process ongoing, though, and these are issues that come to the attention of the department.

Status of Women committee  We'll sort of hot-potato you around a bit. On the changes that the federal, provincial, and territorial ministers of finance propose with respect to the Canada Pension Plan, as Monsieur Ménard suggested in his presentation, there is a fair bit of detail on the implications of the CPP or CPP changes on men versus women.

Status of Women committee  Yes, and maybe before I start, I'll lower the bar, as I might go over five minutes. Good afternoon, and thanks for the invitation to appear before you today. As was mentioned, I'm Chris Forbes from the Department of Finance. I am the general director of the federal-provincial relations and social policy branch at the department.

Finance committee  I'm told that Quebec may not completely eliminate their work cessation test. They may go partway. They had one like ours. We can provide more details if you'd like, but they're not completely harmonizing with us.

Finance committee  The work cessation test will be on, yes.

Finance committee  It's $950 a month. So you would have to bring your earnings down to $950 per month for two months, or to zero.

Finance committee  I don't know, actually. It's a good question. Apparently yes, they tell us.

Finance committee  Right now there is a test in place if you want to take your CPP early, a work cessation test: as you read, you either have to stop work for a couple of months or sharply reduce your earnings. I think it's a bit of a holdover from a time going way back to when we clawed back CPP from those who had continued to have work earnings.

Finance committee  Yes, and you'll be able to do it without having this work cessation before taking it.

Finance committee  Yes, exactly.

Finance committee  You may have reasons. You may just to want to accrue more benefits. You want to continue working and you decide, for whatever reasons, that you want to accrue more benefits. Again, it's all in the context of making sure it's actuarially fair to the CPP and to the plan member, but if you would like the flexibility of continuing to contribute to accrue more benefits, that's a possibility for you.

Finance committee  I am Chris Forbes, general director of federal-provincial relations and social policy at the Department of Finance.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's an excellent point. I agree. You can't pick one number and say that it means everything is okay or not okay. You need to look at what's behind the numbers. Certainly that's true in this case.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Agreed. That's a good point.