Mr. Speaker, I have heard from seniors in my riding of St. Catharines and across Canada. These seniors receive pension income resulting from the years they spent contributing to Canadian society.
Canada's new government has introduced a tax fairness plan to assist all senior couples who receive pension income. This plan helps seniors in two ways.
First, it reduces taxes for low income and middle income seniors by increasing the age credit amount by $1,000, retroactive to January 1 of this year. Second, effective January 1, 2007, senior couples will be allowed to split all pension income that is currently eligible for the pension income credit.
Pension income splitting is here after a 40 year wait. Our tax fairness plan is an important step in improving the quality of life that Canadian seniors enjoy, especially after the amount of time and effort they have given to this country.