Human Resources Committee on March 23rd, 2021

[Deb Schulte, Liberal, King—Vaughan, ON]

As I mentioned before, long-term care is in the jurisdiction of the provinces and territories. We'll be working with the provinces and territories to bring in national standards, because what's most important is that no matter what configuration of institution seniors are in, they need to be safe and they need to be respected. That's what we will be bringing in, national standards.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Minister, what is the projected timeline within which the national standards will be completed and you will put an end to profit in long-term care? When is this to happen?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Minister, if you can, please provide just a brief answer.

[Deb Schulte, Liberal, King—Vaughan, ON]

It is currently in work, and we should have more information on that soon.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Thank you, Minister; and thank you, Ms. Gazan.

Next is Mrs. Falk, please, for five minutes.

[Rosemarie Falk, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

Thank you again, Mr. Chair; and thank you again, Minister.

I just want to touch on OAS. I know Madame Chabot asked a couple of questions, but I noticed that the departmental plans for this year reiterate your government's promise to increase OAS by 10% for seniors 75 and older, a commitment that, as I said earlier, your government has failed to deliver thus far.

We know that Parliament recently passed a motion to increase OAS for seniors, without the support of the government, and in this motion, it recognized seniors receiving an increase from age 65 and up, not just age 75. I just wonder, is the government going to honour the motion that was passed in the House, or are they going to do what they want to do and not respect the work that the House of Commons passed?

[Deb Schulte, Liberal, King—Vaughan, ON]

Thank you very much for that question. I want to assure you that we have reaffirmed our commitment to focus on an OAS increase of 10% for seniors 75 and above. The context of the motion that was passed did not take into account all the other initiatives that the government has been doing to support seniors.

[Rosemarie Falk, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

Right, but it was the will of the House.

[Deb Schulte, Liberal, King—Vaughan, ON]

I understand.

[Rosemarie Falk, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

Therefore, do we just have a government that does whatever they want to do, not respecting the will of the House?

[Deb Schulte, Liberal, King—Vaughan, ON]

I just want you to know that we are very much focused on improving the financial security of seniors, as we have been since the beginning of our term. Right at the very beginning, we improved the guaranteed income supplement for single seniors, because we know how important pensions are.

We also improved the outcomes for CPP for future retirees so that they would have more pension to be able to draw on, because we knew pensions were not adequate for seniors' needs today.

We have already been working diligently on improving outcomes.

[Rosemarie Falk, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

Yes, Minister, I absolutely recognize the talking points that you keep saying, but I know from talking to seniors on the ground, real-life people and real-life seniors who are Canadians, that what has been done isn't enough.

Here's what I'm wondering. For seniors who are having trouble making those ends meet, can they expect in this long-awaited budget that is supposed to be tabled next month a fulfillment of your government's repeatedly promised 10% increase to OAS for those seniors aged 75 and older? Is this something that they can expect in April?

[Deb Schulte, Liberal, King—Vaughan, ON]

In the throne speech, as you know, we reconfirmed our commitment to increasing OAS by 10% for those 75 and above. I just want you to know that we are continuing to do significant work on behalf of seniors through other—

[Rosemarie Falk, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

I know, Minister. Please forgive me, but that was two seasons ago already.

[Deb Schulte, Liberal, King—Vaughan, ON]

But there have—

[Rosemarie Falk, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

Christmas has passed and fall has passed. We're into spring, let alone that this was a 2019 campaign promise. I just feel that your government is hiding behind the veil of COVID all the time and using COVID as an excuse for why we didn't move forward. It's just disappointing.

What is the timeline for the increase to OAS? We're going on 24-plus months now.

[Deb Schulte, Liberal, King—Vaughan, ON]

I just want to remind you that we were elected and shortly thereafter ended up having a pandemic that has mobilized all of our departments to put the measures in place that will provide support not just for workers and businesses but for seniors. We have been taking action with significant funding towards supporting seniors. As I mentioned before, 6.7 million seniors received a one-time payment—

[Rosemarie Falk, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

Do you have a timeline, Minister, yes or no? I'm just wondering. With the amount of correspondence that I receive from seniors across Canada.... What is the timeline? Do you have a timeline? Are you advocating at the cabinet table for a timeline?

[Deb Schulte, Liberal, King—Vaughan, ON]

We are committed to delivering on our campaign promise of 10%.

[Rosemarie Falk, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

Is that immediately or is that after the upcoming election that the Prime Minister wants to have?

[Deb Schulte, Liberal, King—Vaughan, ON]

As I have said, we have been focused on pandemic response. That's what we have been doing. We have put twice as much into supporting seniors as we said in our platform commitment. That is something that people don't seem to be paying attention to.

We gave that one-time payment to all seniors 65 and above who are on old age security, and an additional amount to those who are on the guaranteed income supplement. This was much more than we had committed to in our platform. We provided that last year, and we are still committed to delivering on our platform commitment.

[Rosemarie Falk, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

Yes, Minister, but you know what? Canadian seniors are going to know if this is going to be another campaign promise, and they will vote accordingly. I mean, this government hasn't delivered on their campaign promises from 2019 for seniors, and it's disappointing.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Thank you, Mrs. Falk.

Next we're going to Mr. Vaughan, please, for five minutes.

[Adam Vaughan, Liberal, Spadina—Fort York, ON]

Just to confirm with the minister, we can't change OAS without a budgetary approval from Parliament. Is that not true?

That's for the minister.

[Deb Schulte, Liberal, King—Vaughan, ON]

I'm sorry. Can you hear me?