Thank you. I was going to spend that much time thanking you for complimenting my team on the speed with which is responded to you. I didn't hear from you anything about the quality of the letter you received. Speed is an issue, but quality, I suspect, is also one. So if you have any guidance for us, or appreciation about, the quality of the letter you received, that would be kindly received.
On elder abuse, I must acknowledge that a previous government, in collaboration with the provinces and territories, did serious work in building our understanding of the causes and consequences of elder abuse. I had the privilege of getting to know that work earlier this year.
The poverty reduction strategy and the national housing strategy—key elements of my mandate letters—have obvious and direct relevance to the well-being of our seniors. The quality of the work we do around this table, when it comes to building the poverty reduction strategy, will feed into the quality of our ability to support our seniors over the long term. That's true for the poverty reduction strategy, and that is also true for the national housing strategy. For seniors, housing needs are key to their well-being and to their ability to look forward to spending the rest of their lives with income security and physical security.
I take note of your suggestion of a national seniors strategy. This is a very important idea that we should be discussing in this context.
How do we fight seniors poverty? Eighty per cent of seniors living in poverty are single and living alone. Seventy per cent of those seniors in poverty are women. So basically, the most significant poverty challenges faced by our seniors are faced by single women. They are, of course, vulnerable from an economic perspective, but they are also vulnerable from an elder abuse perspective, from a physical security perspective, and from a family security perspective. That broad vulnerability is very concerning. I meet so many of these single women. It is often very challenging to feel the degree of their natural anxiety and to feel their need for us to be supportive of their living conditions, circumstances, and needs. That is why the GIS was targeted for them. However, the CPP expansion, the restoration of the age of eligibility for old age security and GIS benefits to 65, the significant housing investments we are going to make, and the seniors price index that we're going to construct are all measures that will have a key, tangible impact on every senior, whether living alone or not.