Human Resources Committee on Feb. 14th, 2022

[Matt Jeneroux, Conservative, Edmonton Riverbend, AB]

Minister, are you aware of the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, FINTRAC, and its role?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Yes, I am.

[Matt Jeneroux, Conservative, Edmonton Riverbend, AB]

For those following along online, I'll just quickly read that its mandate is to “facilitate the detection, prevention and deterrence of money laundering and the financing of terrorist activities, while ensuring the protection of personal information under its control”.

Minister, are you aware of how many real estate audits this watchdog conducted in 2019-20 and 2021-22?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

I will turn to the president and CEO of CMHC to answer that detailed question.

[Matt Jeneroux, Conservative, Edmonton Riverbend, AB]

I actually have them, so why don't I answer it for you, Minister?

In 2019-20, 149 audits were conducted. In 2020-21, only 53 audits were conducted. That's a 64% decrease in real estate audits conducted by the anti-money laundering watchdog. The same watchdog was on high alert during the pandemic, and they realized and noticed, starting....

With more dirty money being used to purchase homes, driving up home prices across the country, why does the number of real estate audits keep decreasing year after year?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

I'll turn to Madam Bowers to answer that question.

[Romy Bowers, President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation]

Thank you, Minister, and thank you, Mr. Chair.

At CMHC we are concerned about incidences of money laundering in Canada, and through our research activities we try to support institutions like FINTRAC in combatting money laundering in Canada. We're willing to do whatever we can to support the federal government's efforts to ensure that Canada has a stable and transparent housing system.

[Matt Jeneroux, Conservative, Edmonton Riverbend, AB]

With the increase in foreign buyers and the initiative of the minister in the mandate letter, you'd think this would be something that we would see...we wouldn't see this continued decrease.

My last question is to you, Minister, and I have to applaud you for taking the time here today to join us. It's nice to be able to ask some questions and have you answer them directly.

Your mandate letter mentions “enhancements to the Federal Lands Initiative”. Now, the federal lands initiative enables the transfer of surplus federal lands and buildings. Currently, though, no properties are available under the federal lands initiative.

How many new housing units have been created through the federal lands initiative since its launch in 2018?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

That program has a lot of potential, because we know there are lots of federal lands from coast to coast to coast. What we intend to do is enhance that program so that more federal lands can be made available to those who are willing to build affordable housing and guarantee affordability for a long period of time. We are fully committed to doing that, and we will be moving forward on that, absolutely.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Minister, and thank you, Mr. Jeneroux.

For two and a half minutes, Madame Ferrada, you have the floor.

[Soraya Martinez Ferrada, Liberal, Hochelaga, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the minister for being here with us today.

I don't have a lot of time, so I will be brief. I will try to combine both of the questions I would like to ask you into a single one.

The government's approach to housing is based on the right to housing. When developing public policies, we have endeavoured to work on the most important aspects to ensure the right to housing for the most vulnerable as a whole. I'm thinking specifically of the recent appointment of an individual to the position of housing advocate.

I would like to hear you talk a bit more about that.

I would also like to raise another extremely important issue, which is women affected by domestic violence.

Can you tell us about initiatives that target this problem directly? For example, it is very important to ensure that women and other people who need it can have a space in transitional housing accommodations.

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Thank you very much for the question.

It is really important to highlight how our government has really moved forward on entrenching housing as a human right. We've moved forward with the appointment of a federal housing advocate, which is a key commitment that we delivered in under 100 days, as we promised in our election platform.

In addition to that, if you look at the rapid housing initiative, the national housing strategy, the national housing co-investment fund and many other programs, the priority populations mentioned there include women at risk and women and children fleeing gender-based violence. You can also look at the outcomes of the rapid housing initiative, whereby a lot of those permanent, new, affordable housing units are going to be provided to women and children fleeing gender-based violence.

In addition to that, the Canada housing benefit is a game-changer. It is allowing many women at risk and women and children fleeing gender-based violence to be able to pay their rent and access independent housing when they're in a vulnerable state. We're coming through with that Canada housing benefit, which is now, by the way, operational in every province and territory. Through other programs, for example the supports that we're providing to the non-profit and co-op sectors, most recently with a new top-up announcement funding of $118 million, we're ensuring that women and children are protected in those co-op units, where they receive much-needed subsidies. We're protecting those subsidies; we're protecting those units, and we're ensuring that women have a safe and affordable place to call home. We will continue those outcomes.

In budget 2021, we are bringing future money forward through the national housing co-investment fund and dedicating that to providing supportive services, transitional housing and permanent housing for women and children fleeing domestic violence.

Last but not least, we also committed to topping up the Canada housing benefit by an additional amount of over $300 million. That money will be exclusively dedicated to funding rental supports directly to women and children fleeing gender-based violence.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Minister.

Thank you, Madame Ferrada.

That concludes the questioning of the first hour of the meeting.

I want to thank you, Minister Hussen and witnesses who are appearing before our committee this morning to answer questions. Thank you so much.

We will suspend briefly while we reposition for the last hour.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Welcome back to committee.

We'll proceed with a briefing on the ministerial mandate letters.

I would like to make a few comments for the benefit of the witnesses.

You may speak in the official language of your choice. Interpretation services are available for this meeting. You have the choice at the bottom of your screen, of either floor, English or French audio.

Before speaking, please wait until I recognize you by name. If you are on the video conference, please click on the microphone icon to unmute yourself.

When speaking, please speak slowly and clearly. When you are not speaking, your mike should be on mute.

I would like to welcome our witnesses. We have the Honourable Kamal Khera, Minister for Seniors; Alexis Conrad, senior assistant deputy minister; Cliff Groen, senior assistant deputy minister; Lori MacDonald, senior associate deputy minister; and Annette Gibbons, associate deputy minister.

We'll start with Minister Khera for five minutes, please.

Minister, you have the floor.

[Kamal Khera, Liberal, Minister of Seniors]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Good afternoon, colleagues. Thank you for this opportunity to join you today.

As this is my first time joining you as the Minister of Seniors, I want to take this opportunity to thank you all for the work you do as committee members. I totally look forward to working with all of you in advancing the priorities set out in my mandate letter.

As you have already mentioned, Mr. Chair, I'm delighted to be joined by our senior officials today, who will be supporting me. Truly, these are some of the finest public servants and colleagues. I want to thank them for all that they and their teams do across Canada.

The government has been working hard on many fronts to respond to the needs of seniors, both before and during the pandemic. We need to think about seniors' health, social well-being and financial security. We have made significant progress, but there is more hard work ahead of us.

We all know just how challenging this pandemic has been for seniors, from social isolation to the higher costs of staying home and being safe, to the challenges in long-term care homes. Seniors have been impacted the most by this pandemic, and we must support them now and into the future.

I'm here today to speak to you about the priorities outlined in my mandate letter. The overarching goal is to work with colleagues and stakeholders to help protect the physical, mental and financial health of seniors. My work will be informed through engagement with seniors themselves, parliamentarians who represent seniors across this country, stakeholders and the National Seniors Council, as well as, of course, through collaboration with our provincial and territorial counterparts.

Furthermore, I'll be working closely with the Minister of Health in a concerted effort to improve the quality and availability of long-term care, and to take concrete actions to support seniors who want to age at home. With my colleague, Minister Duclos, the Minister of Health, I will be establishing an expert panel to provide recommendations for creating an aging at home benefit.

Additionally, as part of the effort to help seniors aging at home, our government will be helping organizations that serve seniors, which have the local knowledge to offer practical support to low-income and otherwise vulnerable seniors in order to enable them to better age at home.

As I've said, the pandemic has exposed many systemic problems with long-term care homes that have proven tragic for thousands of seniors and their families. As you may know, much of my work is informed by my own experience as a nurse, working directly with seniors. I'll be happy to share more on that later.

Working with the provinces and territories to fix these problems is something we need to get done, and get done quickly. We want to improve the quality and availability of long-term care homes and beds, and improve infection, prevention and control measures.

We welcome the news that the Health Standards Organization and the Canadian Standards Association have released draft national standards for long-term care for consultation, and that the final standard will be available to use later this year. This is important work to improve care for seniors. It will set the bar higher for safe and respectful care in these facilities. We look forward to working with the provinces and territories on that lasting change.

We're also deeply concerned about the safety of seniors. I will be continuing to work with the Minister of Justice and Attorney General to strengthen Canada's approach to elder abuse. After years of hard work and contributing to Canada, seniors deserve to age with dignity in the best health possible, and with social and economic security.

One of my biggest priorities is to strengthen financial security for seniors. I'm proud of the work we've done up until now. We are restoring the age of eligibility for the OAS pension and the GIS to 65 from 67; increasing the GIS for the lowest-income single seniors; enhancing the GIS earnings exemption; providing a one-time, tax-free payment to help seniors with their extra costs during this pandemic; and, of course, moving forward with our plan to boost the OAS pension by 10% this summer for seniors 75 and older.

A big priority for me in this mandate is to increase the guaranteed income supplement by $500 for single seniors and $750 for couples starting at age 65.

Some seniors received pandemic benefits in 2020, and had their GIS impacted. To fully compensate these seniors, we will be providing up to $742.4 million for one time payments to reimburse those GIS benefit reductions. Last week, we also introduced and tabled important legislation, Bill C-12, to permanently exempt federal pandemic benefits from the calculation of GIS or allowance benefits in future years. This exemption will begin in July 2022.

The legislation needs to be passed by Parliament quickly in order to ensure that there is enough time to implement changes to IT systems and to ensure that there are no disruptions to the ongoing delivery of OAS benefits to seniors.

Colleagues, we must ensure seniors' safety, security and dignity. That's our focus and that's our goal.

Thank you. I am happy to take your questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Minister.

For the first round of questioning, we will go to Madam Kusie.

Madam Kusie, you have the floor for six minutes.

[Stephanie Kusie, Conservative, Calgary Midnapore, AB]

Thank you, Minister, for being here today. It's greatly appreciated.

You mentioned that one of your priorities is to strengthen financial security for seniors. With the help of the official opposition, the government provided a number of benefits to Canadians, including seniors, throughout the pandemic. They included the Canada emergency response benefit and the Canada recovery benefit.

Unfortunately, what followed was that 90,000 low-income seniors—those who are the most vulnerable in our society—found that their guaranteed income supplement payments would be clawed back as a result of the government's mismanagement in implementing these benefits throughout the pandemic.

You just mentioned here—and it was announced in December 2021—that you would give up to $742.4 million for a one-time payment of the guaranteed income supplement.

The question I have for you today, Minister, is this: On what date these will seniors receive this money?

[Kamal Khera, Liberal, Brampton West, ON]

Thank you, Mrs. Kusie, for that very important question.

When the pandemic first hit almost two years ago, our government moved very quickly to provide support to Canadians, whether it was through the CERB in support—

[Stephanie Kusie, Conservative, Calgary Midnapore, AB]

Minister, please. There are seniors who can't eat right now. There are seniors who can't heat their homes.

On what date, Minister, can these seniors expect the money with their GIS, please?

[Kamal Khera, Liberal, Brampton West, ON]

Mr. Chair, as I was just stating, we moved very quickly to provide these very important measures that were put in place so that seniors, particularly the most vulnerable seniors, would have a roof over their head and money to put food on the table.

We all know that some working seniors were part of a group who relied on these pandemic benefits to—

[Stephanie Kusie, Conservative, Calgary Midnapore, AB]

Thank you, Minister.

They're waiting for those funds right now, for those exact things you listed.

You brought up Bill C-12 in the House on Friday. I am looking for it to be rescheduled as soon as possible so that these seniors can get their money.

How much will this one-time payment be? You mentioned the global amount of $742.4 million, but can you guarantee today that all of these seniors will receive every single penny that was taken from them in your government's clawback of the GIS?

Can you guarantee that they will get every single penny of that money back? Through your error, they thought they had it, but then they found out they were not entitled to it.

Can you guarantee that they will get all of that money back, please, Minister?

[Kamal Khera, Liberal, Brampton West, ON]

Mr. Chair, if the honourable member will allow me, I will walk her through the ways we're going to address this issue.

As I was stating, we moved very quickly to provide this support to seniors—and, indeed, to all Canadians—but we know that these programs were meant to ensure that people could stay at home. We know that some working seniors were part of a group that relied on these benefits to help them get through this crisis. As a result, having received these benefits in 2021—we were all navigating this unprecedented crisis—some seniors unfortunately saw their GIS allowance affected in 2021.

I make mention of this because this particular.... It's something we moved on very quickly. Indeed, on the very first—

[Stephanie Kusie, Conservative, Calgary Midnapore, AB]

Thank you, Minister.

It wasn't quickly enough, unfortunately, as they're still waiting for it.

Can you guarantee today, Minister, that they will not be taxed again on these funds they will receive—this large amount that you have promised—after receiving them? Your government has made this error previously.

You gave them the money; you clawed back the money with the GIS, and you've now said, “We're going to give it back.” Are you going to tax them on this money again?

[Kamal Khera, Liberal, Brampton West, ON]

Mr. Chair, if the honourable member will allow me, I will tell her that this commitment is under way in two steps. First and foremost, we are fulfilling this commitment as soon as possible, with the support from all of my colleagues in the House. As the honourable member knows, we announced in the economic and fiscal update that we will be delivering a one-time payment to GIS and allowance benefit recipients who received CERB in 2020 and saw a reduction.

This is going to be an automatic, one-time payment. It is going to support seniors by fully compensating them for the full loss of their GIS and allowance—

[Stephanie Kusie, Conservative, Calgary Midnapore, AB]

Thank you, Minister. You have mentioned that.

I'm not alone in my concern. You mentioned the finance minister. I actually have here in front of me a letter from the Advocacy Centre For The Elderly—