Status of Women committee  Well, if you have questions, I'll be pleased to answer them.

Status of Women committee  I'll answer the first question you asked about the self-employed. You asked me if I have given thought to that, and the answer is no. The reason is that the self-employed are already covered by the Canada Pension Plan. There's an exception. The Canada Pension Plan covers employme

Status of Women committee  If they're not covered, it's because they don't pay themselves a salary or they don't receive a salary. All salaries are covered by the Canada Pension Plan.

Status of Women committee  Now, your second question?

Status of Women committee  I'm a strong believer in the Canada Pension Plan. By this I mean it's a very well-designed pension plan. A lot of people think it's the best-designed plan in the world, and I agree with that. The only thing is this. If I had been asked to be involved in the decision made in 1966

Status of Women committee  I would like to add to an answer that I gave to one of the first questions that was asked on what can be done to alleviate poverty or to help improve the conditions of women. There are two other means that crossed my mind in the meantime. It's not that they are new, but I forgot

Status of Women committee  The obvious positive is that it's a good poverty-related measure, but I don't know who would benefit more from it. You mentioned single moms. But there are a lot of people who would fall into that category, and they're not necessarily women or women with children. I really can'

Status of Women committee  You're totally right if you look just at the financial aspects you mentioned, but we have to keep in mind that when a spouse leaves the family, the remaining spouse is left doing the things that the other spouse was doing, and this has a cost. For example, the surviving lady cann

Status of Women committee  On average, it seems that 50% is not enough.

Status of Women committee  Let me describe a typical case for you. A married man who worked for the public service retires and begins receiving benefits. His wife dies. If this man remarries, his new wife, unlike the first one, will not be entitled to half of his pension because the second marriage took pl

Status of Women committee  Yes, that is correct.

Status of Women committee  What does it do, exactly?

Status of Women committee  Well, what I understand from what you're saying is that what the company does is not manage the plans to make its design more palatable for the survivors; it's just a matter of investments. It's my understanding that in lieu of the employee, they decide where and how the amounts

Status of Women committee  Okay, the only thing I know in that respect is that some defined contribution plans allow the employee's contribution to be put in a spousal plan. But otherwise, I'm sorry, I'm not aware that some employers would go beyond that. I was not aware of that.

Status of Women committee  Yes.