Finance committee  The 6% was simply to test our members' acceptance of the idea of doubling or increasing the CPP contributions at this time.

Finance committee  Actually, in terms of making sure that we have a 70% replacement rate, if you have full coverage to $122,000 of income, the total, including CPP, would be close to about 19%.

Finance committee  Yes. We encourage more to sign on, but a lot of people do not have e-mail.

Finance committee  We have 85,000 opt-in subscribers to a newsletter, and of that group, some 3,000 to 5,000 people regularly respond to the survey. So it is self-selected, but with the kind of numbers we have and the geographic—

Finance committee  Yes, and only 85,000—

Finance committee  No, I think when you ask how they're going to vote, you're asking for their answer, not giving it to them.

Finance committee  I'm sorry, which question are you referring to?

Finance committee  No, we do not try to manipulate our polls. We just report them as they come back. The point here, in question 14 that you're referring to, indicates that they personally do not need to contribute to a supplementary plan because they're already retired. That reinforces our point that our members, while retired, are not benefiting, are not seeing benefit for themselves out of any kind of reform, but are nonetheless offering the benefit of their experience for other people, and they recognize the needs and challenges they face in retirement.

Finance committee  Our bottom line is that there should be as universal, broad-based coverage as possible. How do you get to that point? In current economic circumstances, many more people have woken up to the fact that they must do something. So a well-structured voluntary vehicle might just get enough of their attention to make this viable.

Finance committee  Thank you very much for having us here. We had some documents that were not translated in time, which I understand will be provided to you at a subsequent meeting. CARP is Canada's largest national organization for older Canadians. We are a national, non-partisan, non-profit organization committed to advocating for a better quality of life for all of us as we age.

Human Resources committee  There are a number of things. One that looks a bit further into the future—which comes upon us very quickly, especially in this economic climate—is to provide what we are calling a universal pension plan for the one in three Canadians who retire without any significant savings. That is something that will take a working generation to mature so that people do have a reliable pension savings vehicle.

Human Resources committee  Yes, we definitely do. There are two ways you can look at this. One part is the business environment that is often pressuring seniors in those asset-rich and income-poor circumstances to enter into reverse mortgages. Now, we do not entirely endorse that approach because it leaves them with no asset and no alternative, and it creates a real serious problem for them.

Human Resources committee  Thank you. I think on the whole issue of trying to make something national, it is not in our interests to force the provinces and the federal government to spend more time fighting about their jurisdictions. Rather, we are looking for some uniformity, some uniform standards, some portability of the different duties and monetary values that might be applied.

Human Resources committee  Housing is one of the major issues for a number of reasons, not least of which, of course, is affordability. We certainly congratulate the recent budget announcement of $400 million over two years; however, provincial cooperation is required for that money to flow at all, and it is directed at bricks and mortar, which, although important, is not the only thing that's important when we talk about seniors housing.

Human Resources committee  Thank you for the question. The important thing with caregivers is, as I mentioned earlier, that some five million Canadians are already providing informal care for their families. That makes it possible for the older person in many cases to avoid going into institution-level care, to avoid bad health outcomes, and so on.