Mr. Speaker, the Table de concertation Abus auprès des aînés de la Mauricie organized a press conference on Friday, November 20, 2009, to announce the results of a petition on the guaranteed income supplement.
The organizers took the opportunity to give me and my colleague from Berthier—Maskinongé a petition that has nearly 5,000 signatures of people from the Mauricie region.
The petitioners are calling on Parliament to make the following changes to the guaranteed income supplement: a $110 monthly increase in benefits, a six-month compassion period for seniors who lose their spouses, full retroactivity for anyone entitled to the guaranteed income supplement, and automatic registration after an individual first applies for old age security.
I would like to congratulate the Table de concertation Abus auprès des aînés de la Mauricie and its partners, the Mauricie FADOQ and the Trois-Rivières AQDR, on this initiative. I will point out that they are here on the Hill today.