With the Canada Pension Plan, the problem is that it doesn't directly target low-income seniors. The guaranteed income supplement is the program we have now that's targeting low-income seniors. The problem is that it's clawed back, as somebody mentioned, at a 50% rate that starts really early. Anything above $3,500, you start losing your GIS. That's a real conundrum for somebody of modest means. If they go and maybe take on a little part-time work or maybe they get a bit of investment income coming in, they're looking at reducing their government benefits.
The way I look at the guaranteed income supplement is that this is the benefit that brings people “up” to the poverty line. These are exactly the types of people I think you guys would be focused on. What we have is a situation right now where the benefit is quickly clawed back and eliminated at a fairly low hurdle rate. If what we want to do is specifically target seniors poverty, then some ideas would be maybe to have the clawback start a little later, so, let's just say, for the sake of discussion, at $5,000 rather than $3,500. Maybe they don't get eliminated completely at such a low rate, so perhaps rather than $17,000 maybe a person could make $20,000 before they lose their benefit completely. Perhaps it doesn't get clawed back at a 50% rate. Right now, if you make two dollars, you lose one dollar in benefits. Maybe a person could address that.