Human Resources Committee on Feb. 10th, 2023

[Bonita Zarrillo, NDP, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

Some of the seniors in my riding and in some of my colleagues' ridings have had clawbacks based on their $500 rental subsidy. What steps have you taken to mitigate this clawback?

[Kamal Khera, Liberal, Brampton West, ON]

That's very specific in terms of.... A person who is on a full guaranteed income supplement would not have a clawback if they received another housing benefit.

If you have a very particular question about seniors, I'm happy to take it back with me and get back to you personally.

[Bonita Zarrillo, NDP, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

Yes. It's rental subsidies and transit and that sort of thing that they're having clawed back.

I will. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Madame Zarrillo

Thank you, Madame Minister.

Now, Madame Roberts, you have five minutes, please.

[Anna Roberts, Conservative, King—Vaughan, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'm going to go through these quickly because my time is limited.

Minister, I have spoken to a senior, Sonia, from Winnipeg, and I was very emotionally touched by her story.

Her story is that the carbon tax increase is going to triple her fees. This she cannot afford. She is currently living from overdraft to overdraft. She has maxed out her Visa card. She has maxed out her line of credit. She can't even afford to go to the grocery store because she can't afford to put the gas in the car. She cancelled her doctor's appointments because she can't afford to drive there. I try to listen to these seniors and I can't help but get emotional.

Can you explain to me how a single senior is telling me that the benefits you're putting forward are not helping her with the cost of living? Your government is failing on this account. Do you have an explanation for that?

[Kamal Khera, Liberal, Brampton West, ON]

Let me just talk about...and hopefully, Ms. Roberts, you will let me finish.

We've done many things to support seniors.

As you know, Ms. Roberts, when your government was in power, your government actually wanted to increase the age of retirement to 67. That would have actually come into place right now, in 2023. It would have been the year that the age of eligibility—

[Anna Roberts, Conservative, King—Vaughan, ON]

Going back is not the solution.

[Wayne Long, Liberal, Saint John—Rothesay, NB]

Chair, I have a point of order. I think the minister should be allowed to finish the question that was asked of her.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Madame Roberts, it's your time.

[Anna Roberts, Conservative, King—Vaughan, ON]

I need to get to some questions. I'm going to get to this one.

Bill VanGorder is the chief operating officer of CARP. I'm sure you know who he is, since CARP is Canada's largest association for older Canadians. He said that in the time that he's been working at CARP he has never, in his experience, heard and seen so many angry seniors. This is based on a focus group that he conducted with CARP. They are angry. They are feeling that this government is not taking care of them. These are the seniors who built our country.

Can you please explain to me, and to the seniors who are listening today, your understanding of how we are going to support them financially? You continue to talk about the increases, but this woman is not living on the programs you have.

How can you explain that to her? Would you please do that?

[Kamal Khera, Liberal, Brampton West, ON]

Absolutely, and I again will reiterate a number of things that we're doing and that we're going to continue to do.

First, as I mentioned, we've increased the guaranteed income supplement. That has helped 900,000 seniors. The majority of them are single vulnerable women, Ms. Roberts, as you mentioned. We've actually lifted 45,000 seniors out of poverty because of that.

We've also increased and enhanced the Canada pension plan for future retirees. As you know, we have an aging population. By 2051, a quarter of the population is going to be 65 and older, so we want to make sure they're supported.

All the benefits we've put forward, whether it is the Canada pension plan, old age security or the guaranteed income supplement, are actually indexed with an increase to the cost of living, so they will only increase and never decrease.

They don't have to worry about their financial security.

We've also—

[Anna Roberts, Conservative, King—Vaughan, ON]

I'm sorry to interrupt, but can we get back to my topic? I just want to understand something. How many focus groups have you held in the last 18 months?

[Kamal Khera, Liberal, Brampton West, ON]

That's a great question.

I've actually travelled from coast to coast to coast and have spoken to hundreds of thousands of seniors in the year that I have been a member of Parliament, including in your own riding, Ms. Roberts. I was there spending time with them in the fall. I was in every region of the country, speaking in many members' ridings. I was in Mr. Coteau's riding and held a town hall in his community. I was in Tony's riding earlier in January.

If you don't mind—

[Anna Roberts, Conservative, King—Vaughan, ON]

Thank you very much for doing that. I'm going back to my—

[Kamal Khera, Liberal, Brampton West, ON]

I do want to say, Ms. Roberts, that I was in your community, and some of the seniors actually came to me and thanked me for the work we were doing with our New Horizons for Seniors program in your own community. I want to give a whole shout-out. In your own community, I think it's a Human Endeavour program that—

[Anna Roberts, Conservative, King—Vaughan, ON]

How does that pay their bills to heat their homes in wintertime?

It's great, and I'm not complaining about the horizons program, but how does that help those single seniors who are living from overdraft to overdraft, maxed out on their credit cards and maxed out on everything they have, and can't even afford to heat their homes?

She's living under five blankets at night just to stay warm, but can't even afford to go to the doctor. How does that help them?

[Kamal Khera, Liberal, Brampton West, ON]

We've increased the old age security for those seniors 75 and older. We have helped with the increases to the guaranteed income supplement. We're continuing to be there. Part of my mandate is making sure that we're supporting them as we move forward.

With all due respect to my honourable colleague, thank God her government wasn't in government. She would still be working at this time if she was 67, because that's one of the things that would have—

[Anna Roberts, Conservative, King—Vaughan, ON]

We never had a carbon tax.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Madam Roberts. Your time is over.

Thank you, Madam Minister.

Mr. Long, you have five minutes.

[Wayne Long, Liberal, Saint John—Rothesay, NB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and good morning to my colleagues.

Minister, thank you for being here with us this morning.

I have a few things I want to say before I actually ask you questions.

We as a government have no reason to be on the defensive here—

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Mr. Chair, there is no interpretation.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Okay. We can continue now.

[Kamal Khera, Liberal, Brampton West, ON]

I do have interpretation now. I didn't in the beginning.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Madam Larouche, if there's still a problem, get my attention.

Mr. Long, please continue.

[Wayne Long, Liberal, Saint John—Rothesay, NB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Again, good morning to my esteemed colleagues.

I've heard the questioning this morning, and I certainly understand the questioning from the opposition viewpoint, but as a government, we have no reason to be on the defensive with respect to what we've done for seniors.

One of the first things that I became very aware of when I was going door to door and campaigning back in 2015—which seems like yesterday—was the plight of seniors and how they felt abandoned by the previous government and how there was no support. They felt totally neglected.

Look, I'm blessed. My mother is still in my life. She's in her 86th year. Mom gets her old age pension. She gets her supplement, with a bit of support from us, but she's very appreciative. In fact, she called me just recently to say that she got an increase in her pension. Obviously, it was indexed. Again, Minister, I think we have done great things and I think we've been there for seniors.

I want to give you a chance, without being interrupted, to go through the programs we have done. They're significant and they have made a difference to hundreds of thousands of seniors across this country.

Minister, if you want, you can have the floor for a bit just to go through the programs again to remind my colleagues and Canadians of what a significant impact our government has had on seniors in Canada.

Thank you.