Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the hon. member for Ottawa West for raising the issue.
Canada is world renowned for having one of the best retirement systems in the world yet one disadvantaged group in our country is single, elderly women. In recognition of that fact, Liberal governments have, in successive years, improved the security of low income elderly women. The result is that retirement incomes for elderly women have been drastically improving over the last 10 or 20 years. The proportion of low income elderly women has declined significantly.
That is in contrast to the proposal on pensions from the Reform Party which would have the opposite effect of making the single, elderly woman less well off.