Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon everyone.
My name is Pierre-Claude Poulin and I'm responsible for the Income and Taxation Committee of the Association québécoise de la défense des droits des personnes retraitées et préretraitées.
Our association is apolitical. It has 30,000 retiree members, the majority of whom are without an employer pension. That's the main problem with Canada's pension systems.
When seniors, who represent approximately 20% of Canada's population, are faced with the closing of thousands of seniors’ residences, are victims of eviction and sometimes homelessness, not to mention insolvency, urgent action should have been taken long before now.
In 2023, 39% of Quebec retirees needed financial support from the guaranteed income supplement, a form of social assistance to help those at or below the Canadian poverty line, which is currently set at $21,634. These retirees are not eligible for refundable tax credits for health services, including optometric care, prescription drugs, hearing aids and so on. Also in 2023, 49% of retirees were at the income level for which no taxes had to be paid. They were therefore at the same taxation level as those receiving social assistance or funds from the GIS. However, these retirees had paid into a small pension that provided the equivalent of social assistance, meaning the GIS. So 10% of retirees earned and saved enough money for their retirement without drawing any benefits. This situation resulted from the fact that OAS benefits did not increase enough, meaning that some significant catching up is required.
It's worth pointing out that in 1927, Canada was a world leader in old age security. It was a model for other countries to follow in terms of implementing a financial old age security system. Canada was a world leader in providing economic support to its retirees.
Yet in 2023, Canada, a member country of the G7, is now ranked 13th among OECD countries in terms of economic support in the form of basic pensions for its retirees. In the documents I tabled, you will see all of the options and attempts that have been made to bring old age security up to speed again.
As I don't have a lot of time, I will move on immediately to the problems that were caused by the failure to increase OAS benefits in recent years, particularly with respect to housing. GIS assistance is now based on an economic index—the official poverty line—which is based on what is called the market basket measure.
In provinces and regions that provide housing assistance, the amount is based on an income of $32,000. Individuals with an income of under $32,000 are entitled to affordable housing, housing from the municipal housing bureau, or co-op housing. For support to retirees in Canada, the index is based on an income of $21,000. So there is a $10,000 gap to be filled.
Municipal taxation is another problem. Municipal building taxes are increasing more rapidly than OAS benefits. That's a problem when life expectancy is 83 or 85 years, meaning that for 23 or 25 years, people are living solely on the low level of OAS pension indexing, without anything else that could increase income and enable them to remain in their homes.
There is also the homelessness problem. Homelessness has been rising among seniors in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. In July 2021 in Montreal, 38% of homeless people who found themselves forced to live in parks were men aged 72 to 74. Because they had been unable to renew their leases, they decided not to do so because they were sure they could find lower cost housing. When they failed to do so by July 1, they ended up living in tent cities for a short while.
Another factor is the closing of seniors’ retirement homes. In Quebec, there are now only 975 such facilities left. The main reason for the closings is that most of the residents are living on the GIS, and the OAS is not increasing rapidly enough.
The other point I wanted to add was about bankruptcies—