Talking about the constituency that I'm here to speak on behalf of, people over 50, one thing is that there must be a recognition that poverty is more extensive than the statistics we have from Statistics Canada will let us believe. Statistics Canada says, for example, that 6.1% of seniors are in poverty, and yet about 38% of current seniors—that would be about 1.5 million people—are receiving the guaranteed income supplement, which only goes to poor people.
While it's true we don't need any studies because the evidence is out there, I agree entirely that what we need is a change of attitude. We need a change of recognition that poverty is extensive in this country, and should not be, because we are a wealthy country. Not only are we a wealthy country, but we have the distinction...because in fairness to both the current and the previous governments, they have managed our money very well, and we've enjoyed surpluses.
Our organization represents 400,000 people. As you can imagine, we cut across the gamut of political opinion, so I have to be careful of what I say when I speak on behalf of the organization. I will say personally—and this is only my personal opinion, and I suppose you should never express that before a parliamentary committee—I agree with you entirely, we do have surpluses, and those surpluses should be spent on assisting to raise the level in our country of non-poverty, bringing people out, and that we do have to change attitudes.
For many seniors, they are in poverty because—and I don't want to go into a long song and dance because you don't have the time—like a lot of people they could not afford during their working years, even though two people were working, to put money aside and save for pensions. Many, about 40% to 50% of Canadians, either don't have a pension or have a totally inadequate personal pension, which is another issue that will bite us in the near future.
The question you are asking I think is one that you have to spend more than five minutes to think about and answer.