Government Operations committee  Thank you for the opportunity.

Government Operations committee  Yes. I hesitate to attribute too much motive, but you see these things very often in situations where it's very convenient for the cost to appear low. Under those circumstances, you don't want to be moving the rate around a lot because it raises questions in people's minds. It ca

Government Operations committee  Yes, it is about calculating a present value. In the extreme, you might have a situation—and if the C.D. Howe Institute offered a defined benefit pension plan, I think this would be the appropriate treatment. We're a charity. We depend on annual donations. We could go out of busi

Government Operations committee  I don't have that number in my head so I won't speculate about it. It's relevant to a question that was asked earlier about the Public Sector Pension Plan Investment Board. At the moment because the plan is largely unfunded it's appropriate for them to be trying to earn high retu

Government Operations committee  I think the capacity is certainly there. The investment opportunities in the world right as we speak are perhaps less attractive in general. Everything seems expensive. That's the nature of the game. With regard to teachers and others, they'll speak for themselves, but my take on

Government Operations committee  I mentioned already that the Public Sector Accounting Board has a consultation paper out on this question. It is reflecting the discussions that are very current including those in the public accounts committee about what is the right way to think of these things. Broadly speak

Government Operations committee  First, I will just respond to one element of the previous question. It is not a matter of opinion whether the MP pension plan is funded or not. It is a matter of fact that it is not funded. It's too bad that the reports give the impression that it is. The entire obligation in t

Government Operations committee  I think we can conceptually separate those two topics, even though in practice you tend to see the two together. Where you see high discount rates you also tend to see a lot of smoothing going on because people don't like—

Government Operations committee  I mentioned already that in the broader public sector plans you'll typically find that the contribution rates are over 20%. Most Canadians who save in RRSPs or in defined contribution pension plans can only save 18%. Those limits are quite low. There is concern about the income d

Government Operations committee  I never liked being on a different side of an issue from the chief actuary, who I think does a very good job and whose reports I rely on for a lot of my work. I wish to show appropriate respect to the chief actuary and to the office of the chief actuary. The disagreement betwee

Government Operations committee  It depends on the formula you choose. Typically when you have a jointly governed plan there's attention to avoiding big swings in the contribution rates. Nobody likes that. If I understood your question correctly, you were concerned about the people whose pensions are already be

Government Operations committee  Yes, the young teacher or the young public servant, generally, is in a tougher situation. As I mentioned already, as an MP you would not know typically that your plan is unfunded. I could argue that you should know. You should peel back the layers and have a look at it, but it'

Government Operations committee  Excuse me for not replying in French. I would try your patience. Taking that question first, I think the model of the 2000 reforms for the public service, the RCMP and the Canadian Forces is not a bad way of thinking about doing the transition. In response to the earlier quest

Government Operations committee  Yes, I think it is.

Government Operations committee  We haven't done the same kind of analysis, because the nature of the promise in a shared-risk plan is different. As you may know, with the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, there is conditional indexation. Also, one of the virtues of these jointly governed plans—and I don't say th