Stanley Howard Knowles (Whip of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation)
Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (C.C.F.)
Mr. KNOWLES:
I am in support of this act, and the activities carried on under it. However, I wish to ask a question relative to a change which has been made as the result of an item in a recent auditor general's report. As I understand it, until recently the annuities branch was issuing, among its various contracts, what is known as a last survivor contract, either until the death of both of the survivors, or for a guaranteed period of, we will say, ten or twenty years. Apparently the auditor general discovered that there was no authority for the guaranteed provision attached to a last survivor contract, and accordingly the annuities branch has discontinued issuing that kind of contract. I understand there is no question about the rejection of contracts issued prior to the matter being pointed out by the auditor general. These contracts were made by the government and signed, so they are valid. Such contracts however are not now being issued. I am not one to ask that the government do something for which there is no provision through parliamentary legislation, but I should like to know whether consideration has been given by the government to amending .the act so as to provide for the kind of contract to which I have referred.