Mr. Speaker, my comments will be twofold. First, I am going to ask the hon. member to do something, and then I will put a question to him.
First, I am inviting the hon. member to reread the comments that he just made. He spoke as if he were a new member in this House. However, he is a seasoned parliamentarian who was a government member just a few months ago. During all the years when his party was in office, we put to him the same questions that he is now asking. When his party was in office, he could have settled the issue.
We in this House heard all this empty rhetoric about intentions. What is the member's intention? If his party is elected again to run the country, the member will again do what he did in the past. Who created the problem? In 2001, public servants admitted they knew that some low income seniors had not received the guaranteed income supplement. They even knew how many. The member mentioned that number. If the number is known, then we also know who these people are. Why? Because they can be identified by looking at income tax returns.
The previous government used a pretext, namely that access to information and confidentiality was the main obstacle. However, the information commissioner said that the act authorized such an exercise.
I now come to my question, which is twofold. When the Liberals were in office, why did they not give seniors the guaranteed income supplement to which they were entitled? These people are still owed $3.2 billion. If the member's party is re-elected again, does he commit to act, as he is now claiming, to do something about this issue?
We Bloc Québécois members did take action. In 2001, our former colleague, Mr. Gagnon, who was the member for Saint-Maurice—Champlain, led the campaign. When he first started, 68,000 seniors in Quebec had not received their guaranteed income supplement. We were able to track down 42,000 of these people, who were supposed to share a total of $159 million. That is a huge amount. A large number of these people are still waiting for a sum of $128 million that has yet to be given to them. That money has not been paid to these people in Quebec. I want to know why this was not done.