Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague from the Outaouais, a dedicated sovereignist and a symbol of the Bloc Québécois contribution, since it arrived here, to defending the interests of Quebec.
The Outaouais is not an area where the majority are in favour of sovereignty. Significant progress has been made and the type of action by the Bloc Québécois means that today we have a member from the Outaouais who represents the interests of Quebec, as desired by Quebeckers. He is not a representative of Ottawa in the Outaouais; he is a representative of the Outaouais in Ottawa. I wish to thank him.
Insofar as the elderly are concerned, the best thing that the government could do regarding the guaranteed income supplement would be to take a photograph of the reality and make it public. There are still 63,000 senior citizens who should receive the guaranteed income supplement but do not. That must change. We should be able to see from this photograph whether the government is making things as easy as possible for the elderly or whether they have to fill out forms year after year and re-do their calculations. Nowadays, calculations can be done automatically in many fields. Help is provided so that people can have computerized services. And yet, no automatic calculations are done for these people. They are not sent a letter telling them that the calculations have been done and they are entitled to a certain supplement. Efforts could be made as well to check whether that suits them.
Someone who is getting the minimum old age pension and would receive an additional $100 could talk things over with his or her family to see whether it makes much sense.
The government should table figures and report on the situation to the relevant parliamentary committee. The parliamentarians on this committee could then decide what to do.
At the present time, the situation is still murky and hard to follow. Human Resources and Social Development Canada now provides information so that people can get their guaranteed income supplement. This is thanks to the efforts of the Bloc Québécois and, more especially, Mr. Marcel Gagnon. But more needs to be done. The current situation should be explained, for example, that this many million people receive the supplement but this many tens of thousands still do not, even though they are entitled to it. The search for them must continue.
There should be some inter-generational information. People who are 50 or 55 years of age should be asked to check whether their parents are getting what is due to them. The elderly are often very proud and reluctant to say that they are short of money. Maybe the money they need is what the federal government already owes them.
The best thing would still be to give them what is owed and make it retroactive. If the federal government decided to give money to everyone we have found over the last two, three or four years, we could then say that it had done a good job.