Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Brad, for sharing your time.
Thank you to the witnesses for the great testimony.
I want to bring something to your attention that I believe is important.
Many seniors cannot navigate through confusing government websites. Some do not even have Internet access due to the rural connectivity divide and affordability concerns. Many seniors in my riding rely on physical government offices to get the support they need. However, the government closed the doors to many offices such as Service Canada. This resulted in Canadians phoning government departments and agencies such as Service Canada and the CRA to get the support they needed.
An Order Paper question I submitted revealed that in April 2020 there were nearly six million calls to Service Canada call centres that were unable to even make it to the interactive voice response automated system. The Canadians who did make it through had to wait an average of two hours that month. In January of this year there were over 120,000 calls that hung up while waiting to get hold of the pension call centre. In February, there were over 135,000 and in March there were over 160,000 calls that had to hang up on the same pension call centre.
This question is for Ms. Mackenzie.
Do you believe that this is an issue for seniors, and how do you suggest the government address these accessibility concerns?