Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to table, on behalf of the men, women and seniors in my riding, a petition which reads as follows:
“Whereas poverty is a plague that seriously affects seniors;
Whereas any measure that changes the financial situation of seniors poses a real threat to their physical health and their autonomy;
Whereas most seniors are living below the poverty line;
Your petitioners are asking Parliament to increase the basic amounts of the old age pension, the widow spouse allowance and the guaranteed income supplement, since we feel that the current amounts are clearly inadequate to allow our seniors to maintain an acceptable quality of life.
Your petitioners are also asking that low income individuals not be subjected to a diminution of the supplement already granted when they take money from an RRSP, a RRSF or when they get another temporary cash inflow.
Lastly, they are asking Parliament to take the necessary measures to adequately inform seniors, so that they do not lose the amounts to which they are entitled and to make eligibility rules more flexible by reducing penalties for all those who were not informed of their rights”.
This petition was signed by 2,800 people from municipalities located in the riding of Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, namely Brownsburg-Chatham, Lachute, Saint-André d'Argenteuil, Wentworth-Nord,Lakefield, Gore, Harrington, Saint-Placide, Mirabel, Morin-Heights, Saint-Adolphe-d'Howard, Grenville, Boileau, Lac-des-Plages, Lac-Simon, Duhamel, Saint-Eustache, and from municipalities located in—