Human Resources committee  Thank you very much. Thank you for having me here today. CARP is a national, non-profit, non-partisan organization with 300,000 members across the country in 41 chapters. We advocate for social change that will improve the quality of life for all of us as we age. Our advocacy covers financial and retirement security; equitable access to health care; and such human rights issues as freedom from elder abuse, ageism in the media, and age discrimination, especially in the workplace.

Finance committee  Absolutely. Thank you for the question. In fact, I had one CARP member speak to me specifically about that one point. She was not poorly off but was recently widowed and did not have any CPP to rely on and her husband did not have a pension. So she was relying entirely on her OAS and she wasn't at the point where she was going to have to depend on GIS.

Finance committee  Absolutely. This has been a long-standing problem. It started with the CPP and the QPP. In fact, the experience was that in the province of Quebec, there was nearly 99% uptake of people's QPP because the department actually went out, sought out people, and let them know they were entitled.

Finance committee  Well, of course, the issue there is that if your income is so low that you don't pay any income tax at all and therefore are not even on the tax rolls, then of course extraordinary measures have to be taken. There are measures with anti-poverty groups around all the cities, which try to help people actually start using the income tax system more to get the refundable credits that they would otherwise be entitled to, provincially as well as federally.

Finance committee  Thank you for the questions, Ms. Block. First of all, for clarification, the $25 billion per annum is an estimate of the value of the unpaid labour provided by the 2.7 million caregivers across Canada. That number comes from a study done by, I believe, an academic, Mr. Hollander, but I could be corrected on the exact name.

Finance committee  It absolutely should be regulated if we're going to use it at all. But it is an issue that concerns people, because when you're looking for sources of money, that's one of the ones that's been advertised, and it does work for some people. But the cautions we have are to make sure you know how long you're going to live and what you're going to need.

Finance committee  I don't actually have that number and it hasn't been asked before. But if you hear about people who complain about their property taxes--and not in the usual way that you complain about taxes--about those who are actually being forced out of their homes, especially here in Ontario, that has been a real trial for a lot of people who live in homes all their lives and find that the property values have grown up around them.

Finance committee  You're absolutely right, Mr. Szabo. One of the problems with the reverse mortgage, which I think you're alluding to, is that it works for a few people. But the concerns we have for it are that people don't know what they're getting into. They might outlive the money they get.

Finance committee  Thank you very much for the question. I very much appreciate it. In fact, our caregiver strategy has three parts to it. The first part, of course, is financial support, for which we are grateful for the announcement. The second part is workplace protection, making sure that people's jobs are waiting for them when they go back, because oftentimes people have to take time off suddenly, without much notice, for extended periods of time, and repeatedly.

Finance committee  Thank you very much, Ms. Hall Findlay. In fact, CARP has been on the record asking for caregiver support repeatedly. As we have made very clear, it has to be treated as one pillar of retirement security for Canadians, as not only the income they get from their pensions but also the defraying of their expenses as they meet their medical and other challenges.

Finance committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. My name is Susan Eng. I'm vice-president of CARP. With me is Michael Nicin, who is our policy development officer. CARP, as you know, is a national, non-profit, non-partisan organization with 300,000-plus members across the country in 40 chapters.

Finance committee  There is that opportunity. In fact, one of the research reports that was looked at in the meeting at Whitehorse suggested that a major investment in a home should be sufficient, with the idea, I guess, that you can downsize and sell your house. It's an opportunity, but not everybody is able to do that, as they often need to live in that home and can't really sell it off.

Finance committee  I guess I want to jump ahead and hope there aren't any losers, so--

Finance committee  I represent winners. These are people who have done, I hope, a decent job in their lives and they want to make sure they give the benefit of their advice to future generations, with the hope that we are all winners when we come out of this. The hope is that if you reinforce the rules that govern existing plans now to ensure against the instability that the current rules permit, then we will all look to a better future.

Finance committee  Thank you for the question. The fiscal impact of a major uptake in people saving for their own retirement--if they were to do it in a massive amount--would be a loss in tax revenues. If we propose that you double or triple the CPP or everybody takes up all the available RRSP room, or they join a UPP and in each case get the current state of tax deduction for making that contribution, then obviously there will be a major impact on tax revenues.