Mr. Speaker, I think at this point members will appreciate my frustration in trying to get a clear answer out of this government. I asked for a simple yes or no in response to a very straightforward question. Yes or no, will seniors be able to expect a refund cheque going back to 2001?
I would be happy to engage in a debate about how little the other initiatives mentioned by the parliamentary secretary will actually do for Canada's neediest seniors, and I have certainly done that on many other occasions in this House, but I do not want to allow the government to sidetrack us yet again from the issue at hand.
Let me be clear what is at stake. According to a briefing note prepared for the Secretary of State for Seniors that I received through an access to information request, the impact of the revision that I am asking about would be “billions of dollars in the public and private sectors”. With that much at stake, hard-working Canadians deserve a straightforward response. One more time, will seniors get what is owed to them retroactively going back from 2001 to 2006?