Human Resources Committee on May 25th, 2021

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

You may find that it's covered by cabinet confidentiality as well.

[Annette Gibbons]

It's a budget process, and we don't—

[Brad Vis, Conservative, Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC]

Okay. Fair point.

In our previous meeting, Dr. Samir Sinha, the director of health policy research and co-chair of Ryerson's National Institute on Ageing, said that it was a bit of an eyebrow-raise when they saw the announcement and that “if it had been my decision, I wouldn't have used the old age security mechanism to do that”.

What's the rationale behind giving all seniors over the age of 75 $500 in August, likely right before an election, I might add, and not seniors under the age of 75 who receive GIS? What's the economic rationale behind that?

[Annette Gibbons]

The payment in August is part of an integrated policy decision to increase OAS for people over 75—

[Brad Vis, Conservative, Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC]

Do you think it's acceptable that the economic rationale is that seniors making—

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Mr. Vis, you're out of time.

[Brad Vis, Conservative, Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC]

—over $100,000 need another $500 cheque from the government?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

You're out of time.

Give a brief response please, Ms. Gibbons.

[Annette Gibbons]

All I will say is that this is part of the policy decision that was made as part of the budget.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Thank you, Ms. Gibbons.

Thank you, Mr. Vis.

Next we have Mr. Turnbull for five minutes, please.

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Whitby, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks to the witnesses for being here. I really appreciate your responses and all your hard work.

Unfortunately, there were some implications earlier by members of the committee that almost implied that somehow students were getting more than seniors. I think there was that implication.

Just as a clarification question, I wanted to ask you this. Did retired seniors on CPP lose their income as a result of the pandemic?

[Annette Gibbons]

No, they would not have.

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Whitby, ON]

Not to say that seniors certainly weren't experiencing income insecurity prior to the pandemic, I'm sure, but it wasn't as a result of the pandemic. Is that right?

[Annette Gibbons]

Seniors would not have lost the ongoing benefits to which they were entitled. OAS, CPP and GIS all would have continued as standard. If they had been employed and were eligible for the CERB, many of them did apply for the CERB as well.

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Whitby, ON]

Okay. Thank you for that clarification.

Is it mostly the case, then, that the cost of living may have changed and that some of their expenses may have been increased during the pandemic due to the pandemic? Is that true?

[Annette Gibbons]

On the decision that was made last spring to provide the payments that the minister spoke about—the $300 for OAS, the GIS payment and the GST—those were things intended to support Canadians to deal with some of the extra expenses they incurred due to the pandemic.

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Whitby, ON]

Those expenses would have been things like prescription fees and groceries, etc., and delivery fees. Is that right, generally speaking?

[Annette Gibbons]

That's right.

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Whitby, ON]

Yes, that's what I heard from seniors in my riding.

The one-time payment was linked to a cost-of-living increase that was due to some of these added costs that seniors were experiencing. That's the rationale for the one-time payment. Is that right?

[Annette Gibbons]

That is the rationale, yes.

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Whitby, ON]

Okay. That makes sense.

Do we know how much that cost of living might have gone up for those particular seniors who would have been impacted by that?

[Annette Gibbons]

I think there were.... There was certainly analysis with data that we had at the time to sort of try to make an estimate, but I think that some of those decisions were made very quickly in an effort to try to get support out to Canadians quickly. We wouldn't have had exhaustive datasets, but we certainly knew at the time that certain foods were more expensive, for example, as you noted, and took that into account.

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Whitby, ON]

Thank you.

Just to be clear here, I'm not suggesting that seniors aren't income insecure or needing support, but is it not the case that.... What government in history lowered the age of eligibility from 67 to 65? Was that the Liberal government?

[Annette Gibbons]

Yes, it was.

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Whitby, ON]

Which government increased the GIS by $947?