Status of Women Committee on April 30th, 2026

[Connie Cody, Conservative, Cambridge, ON]

I'm just wondering, as members of Parliament, what we should do through legislation. What do you think we should do to put a stop to vulnerable Canadians falling victim to financial abuse?

[The Chair, Conservative, Dominique Vien]

The question may have been asked, but the answer might come a bit later.

Thank you very much, Ms. Cody.

Good afternoon, Ms. Nguyen. The floor is yours.

[Chi Nguyen, Liberal, Spadina—Harbourfront, ON]

Good afternoon.

I want to thank everyone for taking the time to be here today.

Thank you very much to the witnesses for being here.

Dr. Williamson and Dr. Kelly, thank you both for your opening remarks.

Dr. Kelly, I know your work on the care economy is really important for how we support aging seniors from a systems approach. I know you weren't able to complete your remarks, so I hope you'll be able to share those with our committee.

The work that you're doing gives us a really important opportunity to understand how we can support seniors through their financial security independence and overall quality of life. With an aging senior mom at home, I'm certainly thinking about it.

I know in my downtown riding of Spadina—Harbourfront, we have amazing organizations like Waterfront Neighbourhood Centre, the West Neighbourhood House and the Neighbourhood Group, which are all trying to engage seniors in social activities to help them stay connected.

I'm wondering if you can speak to whether you're seeing trends that show that financial abuse and financial vulnerability are more prevalent among seniors who experience social isolation.

[Dr. Christine Kelly]

I appreciate that question.

From my opening remarks, what I was trying to say is that we participated in two consultations from Finance Canada, and it's really been reflected in the discussion here today. There was one consultation around prevention of economic abuse, and that really deals with issues—whether it's an intimate partner, a child, a grandson or someone else—where someone might be vulnerable to economic abuse.

The other consultation and work they're doing is around a national anti-fraud strategy. It really reflected what Mr. Lynam was saying around multisectoral action. We had an opportunity to see early drafts of that work, weigh in on it and bring out the perspective around older people. We didn't necessarily focus on gender at that point, but that work is ongoing. To watch what Finance Canada does with it would probably be of interest to this study.

In terms of social isolation—this is more from my knowledge as a professor than from the national seniors council—there's a bit of this divide where women are more likely to live alone in old age due to complex demographic factors. They are less likely to be remarried after the death of a spouse or a divorce, and more likely to live longer. All of these things compound, and women are more likely to live alone. They're also more likely to be better socially connected in old age. There are many moving parts. It's hard to say something concrete around how it would affect a specific issue like fraud, but it's another factor to be taken into account.

[Chi Nguyen, Liberal, Spadina—Harbourfront, ON]

Do either of you have any recommendations for the committee on how we can make sure we're working to address these challenges?

[Dr. Pamela Williamson]

Some of the focus that we've been really impressing on is the importance of having a multisectoral approach, and the fact that there needs to be more of an onus on the organizations, recognizing the importance of grassroots and knowing that that's where a lot of support can happen—the awareness and so on.

It also should be the responsibility of organizations, including financial institutions. Some of the reports we developed really highlighted that.

[Chi Nguyen, Liberal, Spadina—Harbourfront, ON]

Thanks very much.

Mr. Lynam, thank you very much for being with us today.

Budget 2025 and the spring economic statement highlighted our government's commitment to establishing a national anti-fraud strategy to tackle complex cases of money laundering, organized crime and online scams, and thinking about how we can better protect seniors, who are being increasingly targeted for financial fraud.

If we were to take more of an intersectional gender-based analysis, is there anything we should be considering as some of that work gets built out, so that we can think about how to better protect senior women from financial abuse?

[Chris Lynam]

Yes. What we see is that different types of fraud and scams tend to impact different demographics. For example, people are probably familiar with the term “romance scam” or the relationship.... For senior women and senior men over the age of 60, we see a big difference in the reporting we receive. That's based on the reporting we get from the public. About 62% of those reports are from women and 34% are from senior men, with the rest not electing to—

[The Chair, Conservative, Dominique Vien]

Thank you very much, sir.

[Chris Lynam]

That's an example.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dominique Vien]

This is a source of frustration for us in committee: We don't have enough time.

Ms. Larouche, you have two and a half minutes.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Dr. Kelly and Dr. Williamson, thank you again for being here today.

Mr. Lynam, thank you for sharing your expertise with us.

Right now, a rural municipality in my riding, Valcourt, is experiencing the closure of a National Bank ATM. We know that, to prevent fraud, it's safer for a senior to go to an ATM or see someone in a branch. Now, people are trying harder and harder to push them to use online services. That way of banking has a greater impact on seniors, and it's less safe.

However, we know that the federal government has shown no willingness to act on this, despite a 2024 report. That's a real shame.

How could the banks do more to address this issue?

[Chris Lynam]

I covered a bit of this in my opening remarks.

We work with financial institutions to give them advice or share our experience so that they can help their employees detect fraud, for example, when a client tries

to withdraw large sums of money.

That's an important aspect of our approach of partnering with financial institutions to combat fraud.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

To prevent fraud, would it be a good idea to make banks more accountable when their clients become victims of fraud?

Would it also be a good idea for them to intervene when a vulnerable person carries out unusual transactions?

Are those potential solutions that could be worthwhile?

You talked about this a bit in your opening remarks.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dominique Vien]

Please give a quick answer, sir.

[Chris Lynam]

Absolutely, those are very relevant questions.

During the consultations that were mentioned, regarding a new national strategy, certain questions were asked.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dominique Vien]

Thank you, sir.

[Chris Lynam]

There are certain responsibilities, and the banks probably have—

[The Chair, Conservative, Dominique Vien]

Thank you very much, sir. That's all the time we have.

Good afternoon, Mrs. Roberts. It's now your turn to take the floor.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate it.

I appreciate the witnesses today.

Thank you for your service, Officer Lynam.

I'd like to state a fact from the Canadian anti-fraud centre. In 2024, there were 17,000 cases that lost a total of $137.9 million, but the total, to date, is $638 million.

When you assist someone who has gone through that process and the individual has been arrested, do you advertise that individual's name on your website and explain the fraud so that other seniors won't fall into that trap?

[Chris Lynam]

We do not advertise the actual case on our website, but we will often share anonymized stories or incidents where people are victimized so that others can recognize and reject these scams. Also, when we have success stories of helping individuals or businesses recover their funds, we like to put either a media release or a social media post out there to show people that if you do report either to the Canadian anti-fraud centre or to your local police quickly, there may be an opportunity to recover funds or use some other measure.

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

I would like to recommend that you post the individual's picture to shame them so that other criminals out there understand that they're going to be publicized. That's just a recommendation. I know it probably won't happen, but do you know what? Let's hold them accountable.

I want to go back to something that my colleague Andréanne Larouche said about POAs, powers of attorney, because we know that a lot of scams happen there. I come from 34 years in the banking world, and I can tell you that our responsibility as bankers when a senior assigns a POA, a power of attorney, to a family member is to explain to them the seriousness of this opportunity for the individual to basically have control of the whole account without them knowing it.

Would you say that maybe what we need to do, when a senior assigns someone a power of attorney, is change the restrictions on the document to allow them only, for example, to pay utility bills or to have a limit on the withdrawal amount? Do you think that would help prevent some of the family fraud?

[Chris Lynam]

If there are more measures that give individuals more control over how they bank or how they interact with powers of attorney, then it would allow more tailoring to reduce these large frauds that happen. I know that, within the consultations for the national anti-fraud strategy, those types of measures or safeguards are being looked at.

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

My next question for you is about seniors on fixed incomes. They're struggling. The cost of living has skyrocketed. A lot of them are being defrauded because they're looking for ways to capitalize on maybe absorbing or obtaining more funds.

Do you think that it is the responsibility...? Maybe you can make some recommendations. I'm not sure if you're able to, but how do we as a government ensure that our seniors who are living below the poverty line understand the importance of not being scammed? I know that you have your website. I know that you publicize it, but what could we do as a government to ensure that we put seniors in a situation where they're not living below the poverty line?

[Chris Lynam]

In terms of making sure they're aware so they don't fall victim, absolutely, we need to be doing more. That's everything from online to pamphlets in the mail. I've received stuff from my member of Parliament related to things like this. It's very important.

At the same time, one of the absolute best ways to get the word out about staying safe is by people talking to the seniors in their lives, whether it's their children or their grandchildren talking to them about the grandparents scam and saying, “Grandma, I will never call you out of the blue asking you for $5,000 for some kind of emergency.” Having that kind of conversation can be really effective in reducing the impact on seniors.