Thank you.
We're pleased to be here to express the concerns and wishes of the million Canadian caregivers across the country. Actually, we estimate that to be five million individuals who are providing care for families every year. We also speak on behalf of employers and the number of associations that are trying to be responsive and supportive to Canadian caregivers.
Family caregiver tasks include wound dressings and injections delegated by health care professionals, personal care, support activities such as preparing meals, household management, managing medication or attending to finances, and a myriad of other activities that are necessary to keep care recipients at home. Clearly, family care-giving is a health care issue, but it's more than that. It's an issue of compassion and caring and respect, values that Canadians hold dear. In addition to supporting the care delivered in busy institutions and to being available so that people can be discharged quickly and stay at home longer, family caregivers are vital to our social network.
A family caregiver's effort, understanding, and compassion enables care recipients to live with dignity and to participate more fully in society. Every Canadian will be a caregiver at some point in their life. It's not a matter of “if”; it's a matter of “when”. We recognize this can be daunting and be concerning to those of you who are trying to set policy and provide support to these individuals, and it's for that reason that one of our recommendations in our briefing note is the establishment of a Canadian caregiver strategy. We don't see it as prescriptive to the provinces, territories, employers, and all aspects of society but rather declarative on the part of the federal government to indicate support and recognition and value for the contribution that family caregivers make. Family caregivers provide their care out of love. They want to be there. They want to be providing support, but they do need help when the caregiving responsibilities compromise their health and their financial situation.
There are good federal measures in place. The caregiver credit and the infirm credit are modest credits that help family caregivers, and we believe the time is now to start to begin enhancing those credits. An increase of $1,000 per year of each of those credits we estimate would cost about $20 million, if we just ratio up the current utilization. We also call for a panel of experts to really examine these recommendations in terms of the nature of the credits, the phase-out of the dependant's income so that the right recommendation can be made. And we can achieve that spot where Canadians can go to work and where they can continue to do what is typically Canadian, and that is, provide care for their loved ones.
We also believe it's time to introduce a refundable credit. There are many Canadians, about two-thirds of them with annual incomes of less than $40,000 per year, who are declining promotions and taking time away from work in an effort to provide care for their loved ones. They need some relief from some of those additional expenses that are incurred, be that extraordinary travel in order to visit someone in an institution and to provide that supportive care, or be that to acquire the additional medications and equipment and supplies in order to deliver care and keep people at home for as long as possible.
Finally, our aging population is actually a reflection of our success as a society. Our seniors are living longer and they're healthier, but with age come chronic conditions, and chronic conditions are accompanied by episodes of acute exacerbation and then periods of stability and independence, so it would be wrong to institutionalize these people prematurely. What families need is an opportunity to provide care intermittently when it's needed for those with chronic conditions. So we suggest that you use the compassionate care benefit and introduce some measures that would allow flexibility and allow that benefit to be used for conditions other than palliative care and allow the hours to be spread over the course of a year.
Thank you for inviting us to present to you in person. We appreciate your interest in the plight of caregivers in Canada.