Evidence of meeting #14 for Veterans Affairs in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was pension.
A recording is available from Parliament.
1:40 p.m.
Liberal
Rechie Valdez Liberal Mississauga—Streetsville, ON
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and colleagues.
Thank you to the witnesses for sharing your heartfelt testimony, and a special thank you to those who have served our country.
I'm going to direct some questions to you, Mr. Gill.
Mr. Gill, you say that less than 1% of veterans take their pension with the 30% to 50% decrease. Can you explain how they financially support themselves?
1:40 p.m.
Co-Chair, Surviving Spouses Pension Fairness Coalition
I am sorry, but I didn't get your question correctly. You were speaking too low.
1:40 p.m.
Liberal
1:40 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Emmanuel Dubourg
Pardon me, Ms. Valdez. I would like to tell Mr. Gill that he can access the interpretation through his headset. So he can choose to hear the question in French.
Do you know how to do it, Mr. Gill?
1:40 p.m.
Co-Chair, Surviving Spouses Pension Fairness Coalition
Yes, I'm going to select interpretation into French. Could the member please be repeat her question?
1:40 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Emmanuel Dubourg
Yes, all right. I'll allow it.
Ms. Valdez, I've stopped the clock. Would you please repeat your question so Mr. Gill can hear it? Thank you.
1:40 p.m.
Liberal
Rechie Valdez Liberal Mississauga—Streetsville, ON
It's no problem.
Mr. Gill, you say that fewer than 1% of veterans take their pension with the 30% to 50% decrease.
1:40 p.m.
Co-Chair, Surviving Spouses Pension Fairness Coalition
I can't hear the interpretation.
1:40 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Emmanuel Dubourg
At the bottom of your screen, click on "Interpretation" and select "French".
1:40 p.m.
Liberal
1:40 p.m.
Liberal
Rechie Valdez Liberal Mississauga—Streetsville, ON
Thank you, Mr. Gill.
I'll just test that the translation is going through okay.
1:45 p.m.
Co-Chair, Surviving Spouses Pension Fairness Coalition
No.
I don't hear the interpretation.
1:45 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Emmanuel Dubourg
Then I suggest that a technician contact us, Mr. Gill. The ideal would be for Ms. Valdez to have a question for other witnesses. That way we could continue the meeting.
We'll get back to you a little later, Mr. Gill.
1:45 p.m.
Liberal
Rechie Valdez Liberal Mississauga—Streetsville, ON
We'll just switch gears for a bit since the interpretation is still being worked out.
I'm going to open it up to the floor. I've been listening to the stories that you've shared and your experiences. One of the things I am trying to really understand is.... You've shared stories about how this has affected your lives in many different ways.
Can you elaborate on how this has affected the way that you've needed to make choices? Has it affected the way you've needed to make decisions or make choices? If you can reflect on that, I'd appreciate it.
We can start with Mr. Boudreau, and then we'll go through to the rest of the witnesses, as well.
1:45 p.m.
As an Individual
It has just made us try to figure out why. If I stayed married to my wife, who cheated on me, and I lived common-law with Kelly for the next 20 years, when I passed, my ex-wife, who cheated on me, would be entitled to my pension benefits. It just does not make sense.
Kelly and I chose to be together, and I wanted to put her on my pension as a survivor. I was told that if I wanted to take some of my money, of which I'm living cheque to cheque, and pay 30%, 40% or 50% of that, she would get a survivor benefit of a very minor amount. I don't even know how much that is, because we can't afford it. Fifty per cent of my pension is just ridiculous to try to make ends meet.
I hope that answers it.
1:45 p.m.
Liberal
Rechie Valdez Liberal Mississauga—Streetsville, ON
It does.
I'll give Mrs. Vankoughnett an opportunity to also weigh in.
1:45 p.m.
As an Individual
As I mentioned in my statement, my choice is for retiring a little bit early, just because Pat's older than I am and I don't want to lose time with him, but I wouldn't have qualified.... I was fortunate enough to have my own pension, but I had to make a choice. I was not entitled to my full pension until age 65. I'm 57, so I had to decide: Do I want some quality time and maybe fewer options for things to do in retirement?
You always hope that you can, like I said, have some of the fruits of your labour and be able to do some fun things in retirement. We've had to now look at it and decide whether we put a certain amount, a little bit...or whether we just say, okay, well, the house.... Then where do I go? I fund myself, my retirement, with my home, which I'm fortunate and blessed to have, but when we look at today's rents and other accommodations, I can't afford to stay in the home and pay the monthly on my retirement income. It's small.
I think the thing that's upsetting is that I've been working since I was 15 or 16. I started working at Burger King, and I have done every job imaginable. I've worked hard, and every time I was without work or I got laid off, I found another job. To be turned around and told that at 60 you're too old to find love.... Well, wait until they're 50. Fifty's not old. Wait until they're 60. Sixty's not old. We have lots of fun and lots of time and life ahead of us. We try to stay healthy.
In my case I feel very much discriminated against as a woman when they label me and say I'm a gold digger. I've worked very hard. They're going to give 65% of my small OMERS pension to Pat. Are they serious? He won't need that. The whole thing is just ridiculous, in my mind. We were shocked when we found out that there would be nothing there for me.
It's been very difficult to make the decision to retire, but as I said, we chose time. After losing Ken young—he worked his whole life and never had a retirement—I wasn't going to sit back and say I'm going to work until 65 and Pat will be in his late seventies, and we're going to do what? We want to enjoy some time, even if that's sitting in my backyard with my garden, if that's what it is. But this whole thing has changed. I think, for him, working 37.5 years and paying into something that will go absolutely nowhere.... Like you said, he could have just kept his ex-wife on there. She could have collected his pension. Are you serious? It's offensive. It's totally offensive and discriminatory, for sure.
Thank you.
1:50 p.m.
Liberal
Rechie Valdez Liberal Mississauga—Streetsville, ON
Thank you for providing such detail. I appreciate your sharing all your personal stories.
I'll also give Ms. Evanshen an opportunity to speak.
1:50 p.m.
As an Individual
Hi there. I'm not in the same boat as Pat and Kelly. I don't have a pension. I was married for 30 years, and for half of that time, before I had my children, I worked. Then I stayed home and raised four children. With the grace of whatever you want to call it, I found Kevin, and with that we're struggling to figure out what we're going to do next, if I pass before him or he passes before me. There are 16 years between us, and I just turned 52. We need to enjoy life. He's had lots of medical issues, and we never know if this is ever going to rear its ugly head again. We don't want to deal with it anymore. It is extremely offensive, like Kelly said, that they consider us gold diggers. They don't live in our shoes. They don't know our lives. I wish they did.
Thank you.
1:50 p.m.
Liberal
Rechie Valdez Liberal Mississauga—Streetsville, ON
Thank you, Ms. Evanshen.
We'll go to you, Mr. Sewell.
1:50 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Emmanuel Dubourg
Excuse me, Ms. Valdez. The time is over. You'll come back in another round.
I would now like to invite the second vice-chair of the committee, Mr. Desilets, to take the floor. I also wish to advise you that the technicians are working with Mr. Gill to correct the problem.
Mr. Desilets, you have the floor for six minutes.