Finance committee  First, thank you for the invitation to address the committee on the very important issues raised by the current budget bill. Since the invitation only came yesterday afternoon, I have had only a brief time to prepare specific remarks. I apologize in advance if my remarks sound

Finance committee  This is doable in terms fairness. I refer you to the 1983 report of parliament's Special Committee on Pension Reform. Members of Parliament worked together, and despite substantial political and ideological differences, they were able to agree unanimously on an approach to interg

Finance committee  Indeed, I've used it. I paid StatsCan $600 a couple of months ago and ran my own analysis.

Finance committee  I used to work in the tax policy branch of the Department of Finance, and when we were writing a budget, we would put in tables with exactly the kinds of numbers you're talking about.

Finance committee  Not directly or recently.

Finance committee  Yes. It forms one of the foundations of the social policy model to which you just referred.

Finance committee  When I ran those simulations it was before the budget so I didn't know what the government was going to do with GIS. It hadn't been clear. I assumed the OAS eligibility would be raised from 65 to 67, but the GIS would be kept. I didn't think the government would want to cut incom

Finance committee  We are talking hundreds of millions of dollars moving around here.

Finance committee  I think the federal government would be better off. The key phrase is that I put both governments together, because there are offsetting effects on the provinces. Plus, there are another 70,000 65-year-olds and 66-year-olds who would fall below the low-income line.

Finance committee  I confess that I don't remember. Plus, the simulation assumed that the GIS would continue. It'll be a bit different, given that it wouldn't.

Finance committee  Yes, plus. It should be done over a longer period of time, and it should be done in concert with a fundamental review, not as a piecemeal stovepipe kind of policy.

Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  OAS, plus other things, like CPP. Think about the tax system, age exemption—

Finance committee  Correct, but both involve intergenerational transfers.

Finance committee  I can't comment on its normalcy because it's been over 20 to 25 years since I was involved in the policy departments, but my impression is that there is a tremendous capacity in this country and in the Government of Canada—at least until I was there—to produce sophisticated polic