Thank you, Madam Chair.
Ladies and gentlemen of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to share our recommendations for making life better for aging women.
I'd like to begin by telling you a little bit about Réseau FADOQ, a network with over 500,000 members across 16 of Quebec's administrative regions and more than 700 local offices. Since the network was founded 49 years ago, its primary mission has been to help break the isolation of seniors by creating recreational opportunities for men and women. Today, the network also has another focus that takes up much of its time: advocating on behalf of our members in appropriate forums, like this committee, to improve quality of life for seniors today and tomorrow.
Nowadays, women are usually the ones who outlive their spouses, not men. In Quebec, seniors aged 65 and over make up 20% of the province's female population. Surviving the death of a life partner is doubly difficult for women, because they lose not only a spouse, but also income, all in the same month. These benefits include the guaranteed income supplement, old age security and the spouse's allowance. The Réseau FADOQ would like to see those benefits extended by at least a month following the death of a spouse; ideally, they would continue for another three months.
Despite slight improvements in 2007 and 2017, women's annual income is still lower than men's. Some 60% of women 15 and over work, and the percentage of women in part-time employment is twice as high as that of men. More than 58% of these women make minimum wage. This makes life harder considering that one in three women who are caregivers also works, as compared with one in five men who are caregivers. According to the market basket measure, or MBM, the poverty line for a single person in Quebec, in 2018, is between $17,000 and $18,500, depending on where they live. In many cases, senior women in that category are just scraping by.
We are therefore calling on the government to consider raising or enhancing the guaranteed income supplement, through either a low-income measure based on 50% of the median income—LIM 50—or an MBM measure to which 7% would be added—MBM+7. Either option would make life a little easier for women.
Given that women are living longer and tend to outlive men, it's important to keep in mind that more women have to spend money on glasses, hearing aids, dental work and so on. If they pull money out of a small RRSP or RRIF or use money that was left to them by their husband to cover the expense, the withdrawals can be subject to tax. What's more, any guaranteed income supplement benefits they receive will be clawed back by a dollar for every two dollars of income used to cover the expense. Thus, we recommend that the government not tax any amount used to cover medical expenses and that it not take such amounts into account when calculating the guaranteed income supplement. We know the federal government currently offers certain RRSP-related tax exemptions, and we think they should include medical costs incurred by seniors.
As I mentioned, the bulk of caregivers are women; they are the ones who look after loved ones. Since they tend to have less financial means, they are hit hardest. We are asking the government to double the caregiver tax credit and to make it refundable rather than non-refundable. We are calling on the Government of Quebec to do the same. Since these women don't have large incomes to start, the non-refundable tax credit does nothing for them. A refundable tax credit would, however, help.
As far as employment insurance and job protection for caregivers is concerned, they have access to 15 weeks of sickness benefits and up to 26 weeks of compassionate care benefits. We want the government to raise the maximum benefit of $562 per week. At the very least, 12 months of job protection should be available to caregivers. After 26 weeks, or six months, of compassionate care benefits, caregivers have no further income and may be out of a job as well. We are calling on the government to provide caregivers with 12 months of statutory job protection.
Now I will turn to the aging population.
Here are some numbers to support our next recommendation. In 2011, the number of 85-year-olds was 160,000. In 2031, the population will be 350,000, and in 2041, it will hit roughly 600,000. That is the age at which the body starts to fail, unfortunately, and that will mean much higher health care costs. We are asking the federal government to raise health transfers to 6% annually and to calculate the transfer based on the province's aging population, because of the additional costs that go along with getting older.
Furthermore, local services that are accessible to seniors must be maintained in all communities. We live in a digital world, but many seniors don't have access to it. In some cases, connectivity in the region may still be lacking, and in other cases, seniors may simply be unable to afford the necessary equipment or Internet service. Indirectly, this leads to the isolation of seniors. Greater access to client service centres throughout all regions would result in less isolation for seniors.
In conclusion, a lack of mobility affects isolation, so we are calling on the government to bring back the public transit tax credit.
Thank you.