Thank you very much.
As you know, MP Mark Warawa has been away, but in March 2016, he put forward a motion. I just want to read a statement from Mark before I begin.
He writes, “In my role as the Official Opposition Critic for Seniors I have met with many stakeholders and all of them are calling for the government to create a National Seniors Framework to help centralize and address the concerns of Canadian seniors. Never before has our country faced this type of demographic change, and globally, we have seen the effects of a lack of government planning for this shift. I call on my colleagues in this committee to support my motion, and begin this study at the earliest convenience.”
Putting forward the motion, the motion is:
That the Committee conduct a study on a Canadian “National Seniors Framework”;
That the study focus on the percentage of the Canadian population that are seniors and the need to prepare for this quickly changing demographic;
That the study be conducted immediately following the current study on “poverty reduction strategies”;
That the study consist of at least ten (10) sessions; and, that the findings be reported to the House.
As I indicated previously, this was a motion that Mark Warawa brought forward in March 2016. It has been outstanding for almost a year. We've done so much work on poverty, and I think this is a great segue because we have seen that there is definitely a tie. When we're looking at seniors, there has to be a next step for our senior population.
Thank you.