That one, I can be a little more specific about. It is important when we're talking about the definition used by the CPP for the disability benefit to understand that it doesn't operate on any particular illness, injury or condition itself. The test is set out in the legislation and has remained the same since the inception back in the sixties.

Every individual case is looked at on its own as to how it presents in that individual. It is interesting to know that for people with conditions that are most often thought of as episodic in nature—because it's not always obvious which conditions are episodic and which are not—for those that are commonly considered, people applying with those conditions can and do get approved for benefits. It really depends on how severe it is and how likely it is that the person is going to regain the ability to work. When we look at the definition, we keep that in mind first and foremost.

The other thing we keep in mind is the fact that the CPP is not a federal program. It's actually jointly governed by the federal, provincial and territorial governments. Any changes we would make to that definition would have to be approved by the jurisdictions. The formula is two-thirds of the jurisdictions with two-thirds of the population, which is a high bar. As Parliamentary Secretary Vaughan raised earlier, there is a need to look at the funding source, and we've had some questions on the EI account on that.

If we were to change the definition in such a way as to be more inclusive or to make it easier for people to qualify for benefits, that might put at risk the monies available to pay out retirement pensions, because of course they're not separate plans. The disability benefits are paid out of the overall Canada pension plan. We would need to engage, with the help of the chief actuary of Canada, in a study of what the impacts of that might be, what that might mean for the contribution rates and whether or not there were any offsetting reductions in other parts of the plan to help.

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