Evidence of meeting #131 for Status of Women in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was living.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, Lib.
Also, I'm including my grandparents of 104, 103, 98, 95, and 90, and I've made lots of observations about their care.
First of all, Ms. Bélanger, have you looked at the impact that a basic income would have on the problems and related costs of what you have presented?
Director, Strategic Policy, Policy and External Relations Branch, Department for Women and Gender Equality
Definitely, income and economic security is a big issue for the aging population. We've been looking at medium income, and we've been using StatsCan data to have a look at what the impact is, especially on senior women.
What we've found is that senior women's medium income has risen since a historic low point in the 1990s, and that senior men's income has remained 1.5 times higher. Really, senior women are vulnerable. The evidence base is what we are using to think about policy options and policy interventions that we should be considering in the longer term.
In the Department for Women and Gender Equality, as part of our mandate, we do policy and some research. As to actual programming, we don't have anything that's specifically targeted to senior women, but certainly the gathering of evidence is really important.
Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, Lib.
Wouldn't you assume that removing the threat of affordability for food and lodging would relieve some stress issues for people in this category?
Director, Strategic Policy, Policy and External Relations Branch, Department for Women and Gender Equality
Absolutely. Food insecurity is really big. There is also—you spoke earlier about this—inadequate and unaffordable housing, inaccessibility for transportation in the built environment as well, and there are lots of different barriers that senior women face. Certainly, if senior women are living in poverty, it's exacerbated even more.
Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, Lib.
Ms. Milan, how reliable is the information collection?
I was at a dinner a week or so ago, and there was a couple at the table in their 80s. They were high-functioning, had driven to dinner and all that stuff. Somebody said, “You can get the link for this on your computer”, and they said, “We don't have a computer.” I don't know how pervasive that is among the senior population, but is there any difficulty in gaining this information from the cohort, the older group?
Chief, Labour Statistics Division, Statistics Canada
Do you mean, for example, Statistics Canada data?
Chief, Labour Statistics Division, Statistics Canada
We're certainly trying to make an effort to make our StatsCan website more user-centric and more accessible to the public, so we're doing improvements all the time there. We welcome feedback from the public.
We're increasingly organizing the content around themes, so that, if someone were interested in data on seniors, it would be much easier to find it. We're in the process of organizing a portal on seniors. That is in development now. We are making efforts to make this data more accessible to the public, including seniors.
Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, Lib.
With regard to public health, in observing these older folks in our family, it was obvious on some occasions that incorrect medicines were given because what a doctor suggested was changed by the observation of a nurse.
In Hamilton, we have the downtown department of family medicine at McMaster tied in with clinics to be in proximity to the vulnerable population and public health all in the same space. I'm wondering if we're seeing improvement in how doctors and the medical profession are able to deal with the problems presented by the senior population.
Director General, Centre for Health Promotion, Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention Branch, Public Health Agency of Canada
It's a great question. Again, that whole area of non-compliance with medication would fall under the mandate of Health Canada, so I'm sorry but I can't answer.
Liberal
Eva Nassif Liberal Vimy, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I'd like to thank the witnesses for their informative presentations. It would've been nice to have more time to ask them questions.
My first question is for Ms. Milan, from Statistics Canada.
As everyone knows, Canada's population is getting older. In my riding of Vimy, which is in Quebec, more than a quarter of the population is over the age of 65. Given the gender gap in life expectancy, women live longer than men.
Can you tell us whether that gap has shrunk, and if so, why?
February 21st, 2019 / 10:35 a.m.
Editor-in-chief, Insights on Canadian Society, Statistics Canada
I'll answer that, and I'm going to switch languages.
Conservative
Liberal
Editor-in-chief, Insights on Canadian Society, Statistics Canada
Basically, women's life expectancy has gone up. That said, the life expectancy of men has risen more quickly. In other words, the life expectancy gender gap is shrinking. Men are living longer than before. That explains why senior men are more likely to be in a relationship and fewer women are widowed. Women are more likely to be widowed than men, but the gap isn't as wide as it used to be.
Editor-in-chief, Insights on Canadian Society, Statistics Canada
The increase in men's life expectancy may be due to a number of factors. A lot of research has been done on the subject, but essentially, numerous changes in men have been noted. The cohort of baby boomers now entering old age had different lifestyles than men in the generations prior. Previously, men didn't work in the same fields or have the same lifestyles as the men of today. That has an impact on health.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio
Actually, we're way over time on this.
We are going to end this panel now. As I said, we have about five minutes of committee business that needs to be done.
We are going to suspend to go in camera. If everybody who can't be in the room while we're in camera could exit quickly, that would be fantastic.
Thank you.
[Proceedings continue in camera]