Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak on this issue because the status of seniors deserves the attention of the House of Commons. In that sense, those who introduced the motion deserve recognition for their efforts. I have read the text of the motion, and it seems to me that many of the items mentioned fall under provincial jurisdiction. In the end, we cannot support this motion because it would mean spending twice as much money—money that could otherwise be allocated directly to seniors.
That said, today it is important to recognize the contribution seniors have made to history in Quebec and Canada, and to recognize that the old age pension plan was a good social program introduced years ago in Canada. I remember that when I was a child, seniors did not have enough money left at the end of the month. Life expectancy was shorter. We had those kinds of problems.
A good program was put in place, but over the years there were major problems of fairness. Permit me to pay tribute to Marcel Gagnon, our former member for Saint-Maurice—Champlain, who is now retired. During his term of office, he paid particular attention to the issue of the guaranteed income supplement. We came to realize that tens of thousands of seniors were not receiving the guaranteed income supplement. Marcel Gagnon took up his staff, like a pilgrim, and set out on a tour of virtually every seniors’ association and seniors' community in Quebec so that these people could be informed. He also mobilized the members of the Bloc. He did sufficient work that after two months the human resources department decided to put out leaflets. The department decided to seek people out as well, because it realized that certain persons were doing the work that it should normally be doing itself.
It was not that public servants were not doing their job: this was the result of choices made by the Liberal government in 1994 and 1995. You will recall that it was absolutely necessary to fight the deficit, to make cuts everywhere. Employment insurance was slashed in every possible way, in terms of both eligibility and in the amounts of the benefits. The same thing was done with seniors. The former finance minister—who became Prime Minister and was defeated in the last election—even proposed replacing the old age security pension with another program that would have been very expensive for every individual. That was shelved because of substantial pressure from seniors. I want to congratulate Marcel Gagnon, thank him for the work he has done on this, and also let him know the gratitude that we owe him.
Today there is one point which has not been resolved, and that is the retroactivity of the guaranteed income supplement. We have completed our tax returns and sent them in. If the government is not satisfied with what they contain and finds that the amount declared is not enough, it can go back five years, I believe, to check if things were done correctly. However, things are different when it owes money to seniors. I could give the example of a lady of 70, 75, or maybe even 78 years of age. Her husband died. The way things were done at the time, it was the husband who took care of all things financial. Suddenly the wife inherited this situation which she knew nothing about. For a year or two, she received no guaranteed income supplement, at age 78 or 79. We found this woman. The Bloc helped her recover her guaranteed income supplement, but its retroactive application is 11 months maximum.
Often people are owed four or five years of retroactivity. This would allow them to live out their days in dignity. There was no indication of this in the government's actions and no indication of it in this motion either. This should be put forward. This should be proposed. We are one of the most developed countries in the world. A society should be judged on how it treats the least fortunate. We should not look just at GDP, but at how a country gives the least fortunate the support they need. More effort needs to be made to that effect and we are just not seeing it.
An effort should be made. We have to take another look at the basket that determines the inflation rate and the consumer price index, on which increases to old age pensions are based. The CPI, the consumer price index, gives us the average situation. Seniors have very specific expenses. They need more drugs and special equipment. They need to buy accessories to be able to get into their bathtub without breaking a hip; they have to use taxis more often than other people because they no longer have a driver's licence. All these things represent a cost and I think this should be included in the calculation of the consumer price index, especially for seniors. This does not exist and we should go in that direction.
There are people who receive regular increases to their old age pension and their supplement. However, these increases never cover what they have been paying for the last three or four years because everything cost them more.
There is a need for action here. The government has to listen to organizations such as golden age clubs, clubs for people 50 and older.
I am a proud member of the club in La Pocatière, which breaks through a lot of social isolation. It lets people get together and enjoy themselves. It is very worthwhile, and I think that these kinds of movements and organizations should be encouraged and should have access to the resources they need to serve seniors. This is a very active contribution to our society.
In rural communities, many people become pillars of volunteerism in our society at 60 or 65. There must be dedicated volunteers in urban communities as well, but I am less familiar with that environment. Often these are people who help children learn to read in volunteer clubs. There are hundreds of examples of such activities, and they deserve to be recognized.
The motion before us, which is full of goodwill, would require substantial investment in bureaucracy. A lot of spending would be duplicated. The motion refers to a secretariat; Quebec already has one. It refers to other similar types of spending that are already happening.
This is another characteristic of seniors: they worked hard, they earned their money and they hate waste. To understand this, one just had to listen to what people in the golden age clubs had to say last year about the sponsorship scandal. The people at these clubs were really angry. Long-standing Liberals wanted nothing more to do with the party, because they felt as though they had been scammed by their own people. In short, seniors do not like waste, and they would not like to see infrastructure being duplicated for them or more money being spent for them, but not reaching them directly.
I think that seniors would be best served by a good indexing system, an adequate guaranteed income supplement. As well, people must be able to have this supplement, and if they did not receive it at the appropriate time, it must be paid to them retroactively so that they can move forward. This is an important concern.
For example, the Fédération des Clubs de l'Âge d'Or de l'Est du Québec is organizing a two-day seminar for seniors this fall. I invite everyone to participate, those aged 50 and older, but also younger people. There will be workshops for people of all ages. It is important that people aged 25, 30, and 35 know what those aged 55, 60 and 65 are experiencing. This will help to discourage selfish behaviour and a lack of interest in seniors' problems. Mutual solidarity can only be advantageous. Such action will allow us to achieve positive results.
I believe we need to break a stereotype that exists about seniors: that everyone lives very comfortably with their old age pension. The reality is quite the opposite. Many women live a little longer than men. These people who live alone, who have rent to pay, often find themselves in difficult personal situations. One would have to visit a rooming house to see how things really are.
Our focus should be on finding a way, especially if the federal government has a surplus of $12 billion, to redistribute the wealth in our society, so as to give a little more to those who have given their lives to our society. This is the least we can do as a sign of respect, in order to ensure them a decent existence in their later years.