Thank you very much for your question.
You raise several really good points and have given me the opportunity to speak to something important that your Conservative colleagues didn't give me the opportunity to address. It's a quick discussion about old age security and where the thresholds are for what they're referring to as clawbacks.
It's important to note that the minimum income threshold in 2024 for a senior before they start receiving any kind of clawback was $90,997. A senior won't start to experience a “clawback” of old age security until they are at the minimum income threshold.
There is the earnings exemption as well, which you mentioned. This allows seniors who are able to continue working.... We know that many are working and that many choose to do so, and this really speaks to the health outcomes of this country and how much we've invested, both provincially and federally, to ensure longevity and a quality of life for seniors in the country.
Looking forward at where things are going, the importance of the times we're living in and the global context cannot be understated. To that end, one of the areas I've been focusing on.... In the short term, we're going to be doing a lot of work on this, but we know it's a whack-a-mole thing, so it will require ongoing government commitment, attention and intention.
We've been focusing on financial security by combatting scams, frauds and financial crime. We know that seniors are disproportionally targeted. That's why I was proud to stand up with Minister Champagne and Secretary Long. One of the first conversations I had with Secretary of State Long was about the need to combat these scams. We know that tens of millions of dollars leave the country every year and go to crime, and that is because seniors have been targeted. These scams are becoming more sophisticated, using AI and the like, so setting up a dedicated, targeted financial agency staffed by specialists and subject matter experts to focus on scams and crime is going to be really important—and not only from a financial perspective.
We've seen stories in the news. Just today, we saw that a senior couple lost their life savings. This is an anti-poverty initiative, ensuring that seniors are protected and that they're not going to be scammed out of their life savings. Our pension system is built as a three-pillar model, with old age security, the CPP and private retirement savings. To see individuals lose the entirety of their private retirement savings means not only that those seniors are at risk of poverty, but that they are going to be more reliant on government services.
This needs to be a focus of this government in our future work, and it will be one of mine.