It is interesting. Madam Speaker, you may recall I said in my remarks that the government did not consult with the provinces when it decided out of the blue that it would raise the age of retirement from 65 to 67, and it will have a profound and negative impact.
The provinces and private insurance at this point in time base the retirement age on age 65, so there has been no discussion. There has just been this heavy-handed “thou shalt”.
One of the realities, and we have discovered this through our research, is that raising the age from 65 to 67 will indeed have a profoundly negative impact on seniors. It will increase their poverty rate by as much as 28%, 38% for senior women. That means we will have 95,000 more poor, impoverished, struggling seniors.
This is a country that was built on the belief in support for people, in the social safety net, in making life better. I do not see anything better about what the government has done.