Mr. Speaker, I neglected to mention that I am sharing my time with the member for Kitchener—Waterloo.
The reason I was addressing this budget on the basis of it being one of the best budgets in the last 12 years is because it deals with women and of course low income Canadians.
When we are dealing with child care, it is an opportunity for children to enhance their opportunities in life. When we take into account the need, whether it be from the Bloc or other parties, we must ensure that single parents have the chance to send their children to an enriching institution that will allow them to continue to grow. When we take into account that it is often single women who will be dealing with this issue, whether it be in Quebec or the rest of Canada, it is something that we care very much about.
When we take into account low income seniors, it is was often, due to our history, women who were staying home, being homemakers, and contributing to society in many meaningful ways. However, they were not receiving additional pensions, such as CPP, and other opportunities did not arise for them. In terms of low income single seniors, mainly women, they will be receiving an additional $433 when fully implemented and $700 per couple.
This continues to set the agenda with the national senior secretariat, allowing us to do research and have a focal point to work with other levels of government and stakeholders, so that we can enhance the needs of seniors as they continue to expand on the demographic side in our society.
I know that some of the members in her party that I have spoken with continue to support us on this. For many years this was not a highlight. Now, the Minister of Finance and the Prime Minister, who, as soon as he took over in December, named me to chair the task force. It has put 17 recommendations forward. We will continue to work with other ministers like the Minister of Labour and Housing in terms of dealing with housing issues, rent supplements for low income seniors, and especially with reverse mortgages. We will be speaking with stakeholders that will allow for opportunities to enhance low income seniors so that they can live with additional dignity. We will be dealing with private landlords so that they can contribute to the equation, as well as provincial governments, municipal governments and of course the federal government to ensure that Canadians have the quality of life that we all wish for them.
There are many things in this budget that we will continue to work on to ensure that low income Canadians have the opportunities so that they can continue to enhance their lives in a society that we all call Canada and of which we are all proud.