Thank you for that, MP Larouche.
I want to be clear, too: Governments do have to make choices and sometimes difficult choices.
I'm blessed: My mother is 86 years old and she's still in my life. I talk to her every morning. My mother has the OAS, the GIS and a small supplemental income. She's very appreciative of the government programs. We also are a government that raised the GIS by 10% for low-income single seniors, and we did make a decision. I don't think there's any question that it's easy to say you'll give the benefit to everybody, but we made a decision based on data that showed that people who were 75 were outliving their savings. They were more likely to be widowed and to have increased health care needs, and few of them worked. Half of them had disabilities. Fifty-seven per cent of them were women. Four in 10 were widows. Fifty-nine per cent had incomes below $30,000, and 39% of them received GIS.
Do you not agree that the group of those 75 and over needs that 10% more than the group of those from 65 to 75 does?
Thank you.