Thank you very much, Chair.
I'd first like to emphasize the words of Mr. Mulcair that things can happen quickly in government. If you think back to before Christmas, it only took the government four days to pass harmonized sales tax right through the House of Commons and through the Senate for Ontario and British Columbia. Imagine, it took four days.
Things can happen quickly, and things do have to happen quickly, because every weekend when I go back to my riding I talk to seniors who can't pay their electricity bills now. I'm sure you know people also who cannot pay their electricity bills or their heating bills, or whatever the case may be. We do need to act very quickly.
Let me just tell you quickly about Bill C-501, which I introduced into the House yesterday, and I do thank the Liberals for indicating their support for this bill. Essentially what this bill does is it moves pensions from unsecured to secured, and that's what I've been hearing today. It doesn't move it to the top of secured. It moves it into the secured area and into the preferred secured area.
I hope that is the first step in a number of changes that are going to be made over the years, and I certainly hope the Conservatives and the Bloc will also be supporting this. I will be working very hard to make that happen.
One of the things that is very clear that statistics and science tell us—this is really for Ms. Comeau and Ms. Blanchard—is that the best indicator for seniors' longevity is how many friends they have. Related to that is the less money you have, the fewer friends you have. So this is directly related to a health outcome and longevity.
I wonder if both of you, in the last minute or so that we have left here, would have any comments on what science tells us.