Mr. Speaker, as the member for Richmond-Wolfe, I am pleased to participate in this debate on Bill C-54, which concerns an extremely important group of people in our society, to whom we owe a great deal.
A society which respects its seniors is one which respects its past as well as the wisdom and the maturity that come with it.
Such a society tends to create a healthy environment for future generations and it is the Bloc Quebecois' goal to promote and build such a society, and not to destroy a country, as Liberal and Reform Party members like to think.
In Canada, 21 per cent of seniors, that is 625,000 of them, live in poverty. The proportion of old people with low incomes is always greater than for the population as a whole. In 1992, the average income of families made up of seniors was 30 per cent lower than that of other families. Between 1982 and 1992, the average income of seniors increased by 6 per cent, compared to 10 per cent for the rest of Canadians. In 1992, the average income of seniors living alone was $18,434, while that of other persons in the same situation was $25,000.
This reality of the Canadian society certainly does not support claims by the Prime Minister to the effect that Canada is a good place to live.
It must be recognized that Bill C-54, which amends the Old Age Security Act and in particular the Canada Pension Plan, includes several measures which will have a positive impact on programs for seniors. However, this legislation is clearly inadequate when it comes to alleviating the problem of poverty among our seniors. On the contrary, some provisions of the bill reflect a strong desire by the government to increase social controls and to pinch pennies at the expense of the poorest Quebecers and Canadians.
Bill C-54 contains some positive provisions, like the ones making the application process for Old Age Security benefits, the guaranteed income supplement and the Canada Pension Plan more flexible. For example, spouse's allowances will now be automatically converted into Old Age Security benefits when recipients turn 65 years of age.
This bill also includes some more provisions that could improve the lot of the elderly in both our societies. For instance, guaranteed income supplement and spouse's allowances will now be paid to the recipients even though their applications were late. Individuals will now be able to cancel assignments of pensions at any time, assignments meaning the transfer of all or part of a pension to a spouse.
Recipients will also be able to ask the federal government to directly reimburse the various provincial benefits they have received while they wait to become eligible for Old Age Security or Canada Pension Plan benefits. To exempt benefits from seizure and to let older people who want to appeal decisions to do so by making requests for reconsideration
instead of appeals are two more examples of measures aimed at improving the lot of the elderly in both our societies.
However, with Bill C-54, the federal government is proposing a piece of legislation that has absolutely no scope and that reflects its unwillingness to reduce poverty among the elderly. True to form, the government has deliberately chosen to increase its control over the poor people, while maintaining the parameters for an artificially rich society, which is, in fact, debt-ridden and on the verge of bankruptcy.
All of our social programs have been called into question because of the deficit, spending controls and especially the failure of the government to act. In the last budget, the measures concerning contributions to the unemployment insurance fund and the proposed changes to the age credits for the elderly clearly indicated the direction in which the government is going.
When public authorities attack the most destitute and vulnerable among us, as does the Liberal Party of Canada, it is the sign of a society with no plan for the future, a society which protects the rich.
Let me remind you briefly that all taxpayers who are 65 or over may claim a tax credit equivalent to 17 per cent of $3,482 at the federal level and to 20 per cent of $2,200 in Quebec. The change made in the last budget aims at reducing this credit for senior citizens with a net revenue exceeding $25,921 and at eliminating it completely for those with a net revenue of over $49,100.
We have to wonder if the government considers that a senior citizen with a $25,000 revenue is rich. Obviously, the meagre efforts to reduce spending are made on the back of the most destitute members of the middle class. In this way, Bill C-54 is the logical result of the first Liberal budget and goes well with the reform of the social programs proposed by the Minister of Human Resources Development.
In reality, Bill C-54 is part of the same budgetary reduction process as the social program reform. Thus, public pensions are as much under scrutiny as unemployment insurance and manpower training. Similarities between the first budget, the social program reform and Bill C-54 can be seen mostly in two aspects of this bill: first, the savings measures considered by the government, and, second, the greater number of organizations given access to personal information on senior citizens, which means an extension of the control measures.
As for the savings measures, the government says that the retroactive period needs to be reduced from five to one year to be in line with Old Age Security and the Canada Pension Plan. It should be noted, however, that every time we pay heed to this need, the result is always a downward adjustment. All things considered, the government is again tightening program requirements for the elderly.
Also, the government will have to explain what it thinks is wrong with the current clauses on Old Age Security overpayment. It is worth mentioning that, under the present legislation, the government can go back at most two years. By eliminating that limit to the retroactive period, the government would collect $2 million more. Since pensioners enjoy some protection from possible mistakes by government officials, the minister should indicate from whose pockets that money will come from.
Furthermore, I submit that it is indecent for this government to propose measures for deferring benefit payments when there is an appeal. The implementation of such measures could put many pensioners in a very precarious situation. The proposed measures would not have a major impact on most pensioners, but they nonetheless reflect the direction taken by the government since its election, namely cutting social programs, despite the commitment it made during the election campaign not to attack these programs.
The proliferation of control agencies, which was mentioned earlier, is another aspect of the bill to which the Bloc Quebecois is opposed. Governments are interfering more and more in everyone's private life and they accumulate ever more detailed information on each one of us. As we know, there is currently a public debate on the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. New facts are being uncovered. We know since the 1970s that the inquiries on government management are made beyond public scrutiny and kept secret.
Although the gathering of some data is often necessary to process certain files, the government should always justify its new intrusions into people's private lives.
The government has not yet demonstrated the need to increase the release of information regarding seniors in both our societies. The Bloc Quebecois will not support this provision of the bill unless the government demonstrates this need.
Moreover, we think that the provisions regarding the penalties for illegal release of information are clearly inadequate. The clients of social programs must be protected in a very effective manner against any abuse that could happen in the passing on of information. The legislation should provide for special penalties for this kind of offence.
For these reasons, I will support the amendment proposed by my colleague, the member for Argenteuil-Papineau, which reads as follows:
That the motion be amended by striking out all the words after the word "That" and substituting the following:
"this House declines to give second reading reading to Bill C-54, An Act to amend the Old Age Security Act, the Canada Pension Plan, the Children's Special Allowances Act and the Unemployment Insurance Act, because it does not provide a penalty under the Criminal Code for the disclosure of personal information concerning beneficiaries to persons who are not legally authorized to such information pursuant to Access to Privileged Information."