Evidence of meeting #101 for Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was liberals.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Anna Roberts Conservative King—Vaughan, ON
No, obviously you didn't.
Do you think, as a government, that this carbon tax is actually making a difference in your life?
Conservative
Conservative
Anna Roberts Conservative King—Vaughan, ON
Is it a deterrent? Is it bad for your budget?
From the PBO, it really hasn't done much for curbing the emissions. How do you feel when you get these results—that it isn't really impacting—and you're paying for something that's not really helping?
As an Individual
I always find a way to manage everything. Maybe I'm lucky, in a way, that I have a wife who is inventive.
Conservative
Anna Roberts Conservative King—Vaughan, ON
You manage your budget based on your income, which is commendable, because I think most people who have come to Canada have learned how to maximize their opportunity by maximizing their needs.
The last question I have for you before I move on is this: What are you going to do with your car insurance now, with the increase because of the car thefts? Have there been a lot of car thefts where you live?
As an Individual
Actually, I just got a text this morning from my neighbour. There were two car thefts in Schomberg, which is the small village we live in.
Conservative
Anna Roberts Conservative King—Vaughan, ON
Okay. I know the area quite well. I'm assuming that your neighbourhood watch is helping. Is it?
I know in a neighbourhood in Kleinburg, they've had to pay $200,000 to hire a private security company to oversee their neighbourhood, so that the car thefts and the house thefts would stop.
Has your community thought of doing something like that?
Conservative
Anna Roberts Conservative King—Vaughan, ON
That would be a huge cost to you anyway, wouldn't it? Yes. That's very interesting.
I want to go back to asking Hélène Cornellier a question.
You mentioned the one-time payment of the GIS, but if you go to work and earn over $5,000, they charge you 50%. They claw it back. If you earn over $10,000, it's clawed back 100%. What do you think of that?
Political Affairs Advisor, Association féministe d'éducation et d'action sociale
Thank you for your question. I hope I understood it correctly.
I'm not very well versed on this issue, but my understanding of how the guaranteed income supplement currently works is that the admissible working income is $5,000, and above that amount, the government deducts 50¢ per dollar earned from the guaranteed income supplement. For example, if you have earned income of $6,000, you have therefore earned an excess $1,000, and the guaranteed income supplement will be reduced by $500.
The guaranteed income supplement is already not very high, even when you receive the maximum. It's generally for people with very low incomes, those who are below the poverty line with the federal pension and their other income. It was added to help them. Now we're clawing back 50¢ on the dollar every time they work and earn more than $5,000. It's a bit of an aberration. It's taking away a big chunk of what we give them.
Now, Bill C‑319 asks that we raise this threshold to $6,500, which would already be a little better for seniors who are still working, often part-time, to—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bobby Morrissey
Thank you, Ms. Cornellier.
Your time is over. Thank you.
We'll go to Mr. Fragiskatos for six minutes, please.
Liberal
Peter Fragiskatos Liberal London North Centre, ON
Thank you very much, Chair, and thank you to our witnesses.
Mr. Catenaccio, I'll begin with you. Thank you very much, sir, for being here today and for the contributions you've made to Canada. My family also emigrated—not from Italy, but from Greece. The way you described your story, sir, reminded me somewhat of my own father's story. It means a lot that you're here today.
I'll ask you a general question. We have a lot of policies in this country and a lot of programs that really help to define Canada, like pensions, for example. At the same time, we unfortunately have politicians in Canada who, it seems, are trying to undermine things like the Canada pension plan.
I'll get to that in a second, but how important do you think it is for a democracy like Canada to have a pension system in the first place? How critical do you think that is?
Liberal
Peter Fragiskatos Liberal London North Centre, ON
Right. You would obviously agree that someone like you, who's worked hard, come to this country, made a contribution and paid their taxes deserves a strong pension.
Liberal
Peter Fragiskatos Liberal London North Centre, ON
What would you think if the value of the pension plan, which stands at around $600 billion, were to be cut in half? It would be more than half, actually. That's what the Premier of Alberta is calling for. Premier Smith is calling for the value of the entire Canada pension plan to be cut by 53%, which I think would be disastrous for seniors.
What do you think the consequences of that could be for Canadian seniors?