Thank you, Chair.
Thank you to all of our witnesses this afternoon. It's very interesting testimony. As my colleague said, none of us are getting any younger, so we need to dive into this issue right away.
I want to start by making a few comments. Obviously the population is aging. We know the stats. We know that 5.8 million Canadians are 55 and over versus 5.9 million who are 14 and under. The trends are certainly staggering and going in the wrong direction.
I want to touch briefly on the initiatives that our government is doing. Obviously the first thing is the increase in the GIS and how significant that is. It's basically helping 900,000 seniors. I believe it's lifting 13,000 seniors out of poverty.
Ms. Milroy Swainson, can you talk about how significant the increase to the GIS is and what impact you're seeing that having on seniors in our country?