Human Resources Committee on Oct. 17th, 2017

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

How about you, Nicole?

[Nicole Laveau]

Yes, I am in favour of that.

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Thank you.

I'm going to come back to you, Nicole. I know that your organization has done a lot of important work and raised the issue of the inadequate bankruptcy laws that we are seeing right now with Sears.

Can you tell us a bit about what your organization is proposing to remedy this?

[Nicole Laveau]

As I said, we recommend that this unfairness be remedied in the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act. After such a situation, some pensioners end up with nearly nothing. They should be priority creditors and not unsecured creditors. So based on the potential revenue recovery classification, they could get slightly more than practically nothing. That is why they should be considered priority creditors.

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Thank you.

The government recently raised the GIS for a few seniors. Do you think this is enough? How much would you recommend raising it by, if it were up to you?

[Nicole Laveau]

Are you talking to me?

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Yes.

[Nicole Laveau]

As I said at the very beginning, the government raised the GIS by 10% only for single seniors. In our demands, we ask that the increase be 15% for all seniors, with no discrimination based on marital status.

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Thank you.

Now I'm going to StatsCan. I have a few questions, and I'll let you guys decide who would be the best one to answer them.

Over the past few weeks we've heard many witnesses complain about data, particularly Dr. MacDonald and Richard Shillington. They talked about how the government needs to put some money back into some of the analytical tools. With an aging population we need the ability to model various solutions so that we can come up with the right solutions.

Can you share with us how you think that could be achieved?

[Andrew Heisz, Assistant Director, Income Statistics Division, Statistics Canada]

I'll speak to that question. Of course, I can only answer it briefly.

Statistics Canada seeks to provide information of the highest quality possible to Canadians. That includes modelling. We have modelling programs at Statistics Canada to which one may be referring in this question. As part of Statistics Canada's plans going forward, we have a fairly interesting modernization strategy that includes looking at developing data sources from a number of different places, whether they be administrative data or modelling or other estimation techniques.

We are aware of modelling as a way of going forward and providing more information. We'll continue to support programs that we have now and continue to look towards developing them in the future.

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Thank you.

Jane, if I could come to you, financial literacy is really important, but the simplicity of the processes that we have is also an important factor. In fact, there are models in other countries, the U.K., for example, that make these processes more simple and fair, and support a lot of low-income folks. Is this not another important step that Canada needs to look at?

[Jane Rooney]

I'm sorry if I'm not understanding properly, but yes, we look at other countries and how they address financial literacy.

Fifty countries have financial literacy strategies, and we in Canada are actually seen as leaders. Our strategy won a finalist award last year in an international situation because it was inclusive and had simple goals. It's not necessarily about designing the programs, but it's important for people to better understand how to access government benefits. Part of the seniors strategy is to help people access benefits and better understand those benefits. Clear and simple language is very important.

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Okay. Many Canadians are entering retirement with inadequate savings. Some say this will lead to an income crisis, especially with the increase of seniors in the coming years.

How could the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada contribute to a national seniors strategy?

[Jane Rooney]

We do have a national strategy on financial literacy. It has three broad goals: to help people manage money and debt; to plan and save for their future; and to protect themselves against fraud and financial abuse.

In my three years in this job, we have actually developed two national strategies. I would contribute the two strategies—one specifically for seniors and near seniors, and the broader national strategy—as one support to a broader national strategy to support Canadians.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Thank you very much.

Now it's over to Mr. Robillard.

[Yves Robillard, Liberal, Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

My first question is for Ms. Laveau.

Could you talk to us about the trends your organization is seeing among our seniors? What challenges and needs have you seen increase since your inception?

[Nicole Laveau]

I didn't mention this in my presentation because I didn't have enough time. Thank you for giving me an opportunity to talk about it.

At the very beginning, I said that we conducted an extensive consultation on four themes: preventing poverty, ensuring quality of life, fostering social inclusion and engaging in a sustainable development approach. We also defined 10 rights, which include a decent income, suitable housing, accessible and quality home care services, quality public social and health services, accessible and affordable public transit offer, a safe living environment, to name only a few. Those are all concerns people have shared with us, and they are outlined in the document we published last week.

[Yves Robillard, Liberal, Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC]

What steps are you taking to defend the rights of retirees and pre-retirees? Do you have programs to reach out to seniors to prevent their isolation and to educate them on their rights?

[Nicole Laveau]

There are 42 branches across Quebec, and each of them operates independently, but most of them provide conferences or presentations on topics such as wills, retirement planning, power of attorney in case of incapacity, and financial abuse. Our programming is already available. We have already begun holding conferences. That is one of the tools we use.

In addition, we often present briefs, as I just did. We also work with the Government of Quebec on advocacy, health and various aspects of retirement.

[Yves Robillard, Liberal, Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC]

Can you tell us more about your relationships with associations resembling yours in other Canadian provinces? What kinds of relationships do you have with them? What are the challenges in terms of communication, information sharing and best practices?

[Nicole Laveau]

Thank you very much for the question.

I am not in charge of those relationships. The national president, Judith Gagnon, is in charge of that aspect.

We are in contact with other associations in our province that are defending essentially the same ideas, including the FADOQ network and other retiree associations. We also like to share information in order to find out what is happening in Ontario, New Brunswick or elsewhere and to make comparisons. We are active in that respect, but there is a language barrier. It is not always easy to obtain documents in both languages. Despite everything, we are interested in knowing what is happening elsewhere and in comparing ourselves to other provinces.

[Yves Robillard, Liberal, Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC]

I would have liked to ask a fourth question, but since it is a bit long, I will wait for my next turn.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

You have two minutes.

[Yves Robillard, Liberal, Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC]

Oh, really? Okay.

My question is for the Statistics Canada representatives.

Let's talk about the age pyramid for seniors and its breakdown. Let's imagine a pyramid where the base is 65 years and the top is close to 85 years, 90 years and over. Can you tell me what the age pyramid for seniors looks like? What is the breakdown based on their age? Are there differences depending on whether they live in urban centres or rural communities? Even more importantly, can you tell us how needs and challenges vary as we move toward the top of the pyramid?

[Sébastien Larochelle-Côté]

What we have shown in our presentation through the slide is exactly what you are talking about, a pyramid that starts at age 65 and goes up to age 99.

There are indeed significant differences by age group. For example, the older someone gets, the more likely they are to live in collective dwellings or alone. What I was trying to show earlier is that this reality is more prevalent among women, on the one hand. So women are more likely to live alone or in collective dwellings. On the other hand, the reality of baby boomers—aged 65—is different from that of past generations. For instance, divorce rates are higher among the younger generation. However, that is also forthcoming among seniors. They will age and more of them are likely to live alone.

In short, Statistics Canada projections help us see that reality and continue to analyze the situation. For instance, you are talking about differences between urban environments and rural environments. Statistics Canada has projections that help it predict what regions of the country will age more or faster than others. However, I don't have the time to tell you about that now. I will have to go through my data, but I assure you that the data exists.