I think the impact on people aged 65 to 74 is very big. These people's expenses have been rising recently.
A large proportion of people now aged 65 or over have not had, in their lives, incomes as high as people in the generations that follow them. We're in a new economy, wages have risen a lot and young people have very good incomes. This was not the case for many of those who are now 65 or over, particularly women. Some have stayed at home for part or all of their lives, and therefore only receive this pension. Some have worked for a while, but have continually interrupted their working years to care for their children or loved ones. As a result, their retirement income, whether in Canada or Quebec, is much lower. They need public pensions, since they often have no private pension.
Age shouldn't be a criterion. From the age of 65, one is considered retired. This pension increase should have applied to all retired men and women, regardless of age.
Old age security has always been a program to give everyone some basic income. There is no justification for offering a 10% increase in old age security only to people aged 75 or over on the grounds that they have many more expenses. The same is true for people aged 65 to 74. They have expenses when they help relatives. They have to pay for health care. Rent goes up, groceries go up. We keep repeating this list, but it's reality. We're not in 1960 or 1970; we're in 2024, where everything has been increasing for two or three years, since the pandemic.