We should look at the tax form, for example, because persons with disabilities are not the only ones who can claim the tax credit for severe impairment. We believe that a senior who is afraid of falling tires more quickly. Some people belong to our group on this matter.
We are not looking at your programs or criteria either. You make them and you undoubtedly have very good reasons, particularly financial ones, not to change your criteria too much. In our opinion, however, it serves no purpose to request further proof from individuals whose significant limitations are already recognized.
However, we are very sensitive to what the Association québécoise de défense des droits des personnes retraitées et préretraitées is proposing to find ways to assist seniors in obtaining proof of medical condition. Once again, there is sustainable development, prevention, the walkability audit, and the seniors fall prevention program. On both sides, it is as though we were in fact telling these people to fall and break a hip in order to get a note from their doctor. We have no solutions for individuals who are in grey areas.
On the other hand, what we know from experience and from the branches, based on what our oldest supporters tell us—since we also have supporters who are 80 years old—is that the association has always considered the federal government more broadly accepting on the disability question because it has a different sensibility, one that comes in part from Ontario, which recognized certain limitations long before Quebec, particularly in the area of learning disorders. The federal government has always had a much more generous vision of disabilities and functional limitations than Quebec.
In our view, all existing certification mechanisms must be automatically applied. We also have to find solutions for seniors. A doctor should be able to certify that a person 70 years old is at risk if he or she falls. This is a concern that must be taken into account. It risks costing Canada Post a lot of money because people have been living without service for a long time. Now that they know they can complete a form, they will complete it in order to obtain the service, and so much the better.