Madam Speaker, I am sure they are just excited to hear the rest of my speech. The buzz on the other side is encouraging for me to keep going and defend our seniors.
As I said, we did not want to provide a quick fix. That is why we introduced this bill. Bill C-12 would permanently exempt federal pandemic benefits from the calculation of GIS or allowance benefits, beginning in July, 2020, and would prevent this from ever happening again.
To be clear, the following benefits would be exempt: the Canadian emergency response benefit, including any CERB amounts paid under the Employment Insurance Act, the Canada recovery benefit, the Canada recovery sickness benefit, the Canada recovery caregiving benefit and the Canada worker lockdown benefit. Once again, we are proposing this change to the OAS act to ensure that this problem never happens again.
Bill C-12 would make an important legislative change that would provide seniors with certainty and peace of mind in the future if they receive GIS and allowance benefits to which they are entitled, without the need for a one-time payment.
To strengthen Canadians' financial security later in life, we provided one-time payments of $500 in August, 2021, to OAS pensioners who would be age 75 or older on June 30, 2022. We are also permanently increasing OAS pensions for seniors 75 and over, beginning in July, 2022. We have taken these steps because seniors face increased financial pressures and vulnerability as they age, but the well-being of seniors has been a priority for our government since 2015.
Before COVID, we had already improved the Canada pension plan, reduced income tax for seniors and moved to enhance the GIS. We increased the GIS for nearly 900,000 low-income seniors. As a result of this and other measures, an estimated 45,000 seniors were lifted out of poverty. We put thousands of dollars back in the pockets of future Canadian seniors by restoring the age of eligibility for OAS and the GIS to 65 from 67. Many of the members on the other side voted in favour of actually increasing the retirement age, not for their own pensions but for other seniors in Canada.
We enhanced the GIS earning exemption for working low-income seniors to help them keep more of their benefits and more of their hard-earned money. This means that seniors could earn up to $5,000 without a reduction of their GIS benefit. Our government is moving forward with its plan to increase the OAS pension by 10% for seniors 75 and over, and will start in July of this year to provide people receiving the full OAS pension with an extra $766 in the first year. This will be the first permanent increase to the OAS pension, above and beyond inflation adjustments, since 1973.
We reduced income taxes for seniors by increasing the basic personal amount. Once we have fully implemented this measure in 2023, 4.3 million seniors will benefit, and 465,000 of them will see their income tax reduced to zero.
Our government has helped seniors in myriad ways beyond direct emergency payments and tax relief. We recognize the sad reality that the COVID pandemic has brought isolation to many seniors, and to our most vulnerable seniors. The sense of isolation and vulnerability cannot be overstated, so our government continues to find ways to address those issues.
The pandemic has tragically highlighted the challenges to long-term care homes. It has exposed gaps in infection prevention and control and staffing. That is why, in the fall economic statement, our government committed up to $1 billion to the safe long-term care fund to help provinces and territories support infection prevention and control, make improvements to ventilation, hire additional staff and top up wages. We are also committed to affordable housing, and we are working to improve palliative care, end-of-life care, and to supporting Canadians' mental health through the Public Health Agency of Canada.
In conclusion, I am proud of the measures we have developed and are still developing on all aspects of senior care, but this must not simply be a stopgap measure. We are constantly working hard to find permanent solutions that will bring ongoing comfort and relief to the men and women who have worked hard, who have contributed to Canada and who are proud and privileged to call it home. Seniors deserve nothing less than the best care and consideration that we can provide. We acted quickly to resolve this issue. I hope my hon. colleagues will agree that this bill deserves swift passage.