Thank you, Chair.
It's a very great pleasure for us to have the two senators here today. We thank you for taking the time to be with us and, more particularly, for taking the time to do this very thorough study on poverty.
I know Senator Eggleton is a strong voice on this issue in our caucus and around the country. I know Senator Segal is the same. I've had the chance to hear him talk about his position on many occasions.
I think you slighty undersell the Senate. The Senate has done some of the most important work that's come out of Parliament in the last number of years, which has led to some of the most constructive developments in Canadian society. Through this report, combined with what we produce in this committee, I hope we can have the same kind of impact on social issues and particularly on those who currently live in poverty.
Senator Eggleton had kept me informed as much as was appropriate throughout the process, When I got the final report, I went to the issue on basic income, particularly for those with disabilities. Of the two recommendations that you refer to, one is to publish a green paper to look at income support and basic income. I want to make reference to and speak about recommendation 53 and the issue of people with disabilities.
You quite correctly mentioned that we have had a big impact on poverty among seniors. There are still high rates of poverty, particularly for single female seniors, but we've made a difference through GIS and OAS combinations. A number of folks have asked about how to do this for people who have disabilities.
There are a number of very interesting and unfortunate facts outlined in your document on how Canada is currently doing. On page 130, it says the benefit levels for people with disabilities “had declined in real dollars in the period from 1997 to 2005, by percentages ranging from 1.5% in New Brunswick to 19.2% in Prince Edward Island. In seven of 10 provinces, assistance rates in 2005 for persons with disabilities were the lowest they had been since at least 1986.”
We then come to the issue of a basic annual income for people with disabilities. I want to quote one other thing from your article. Michael Mendelson makes reference to the idea that “we would end up going from a class D country for people with disabilities to a class B+ country for people with disabilities—not quite A+ yet, but we would be much better.”
In fact, I don't think Canada does very well in terms of people with disabilities in this country. Could you talk a little about what kind of difference the basic annual income for people with disabilities would in essence make?