Mr. Speaker, our seniors, many of them with low incomes, are seeing their purchasing power continually dwindle away.
Seniors' average income has not kept step with the cost of living increases. They are even 10% poorer. What is more, older women living alone experience an ever greater shortfall, and their average income has also dropped since 1997.
My question is for the President of the Treasury Board, unless the presence of the Minister of Transport has rendered her speechless.
Is she aware that our seniors, after a lifetime of work, deserve better than the treatment they are getting from the government? When does she intend to raise the budget for the old age security program—