Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to have the opportunity to speak to Motion No. 300, an extremely important motion that has been put forward. I know everyone in the House cares a lot about seniors. We are very concerned with how they are aging and whether or not they are receiving sufficient support. Granted, there are some that do because they have private pensions and lots of support, but there are others like those my hon. colleague referred to who do not have that kind of support system and need to rely more and more on government support.
For the viewers who are watching, I would like to read the motion. It says:
That, in the opinion of this House, the government should as soon as possible introduce a bill providing: a 110 dollar monthly increase in the guaranteed income supplement paid to pensioners; the continuation of the payment, for a period of six months, of the old age security pension and supplement to a person whose spouse or common-law partner has died; automatic registration for people 65 entitled to the guaranteed income supplement; full retroactivity of the guaranteed income supplement for seniors who have been short-changed.
There are a many things in this motion and clearly the member is very concerned about a variety of areas. She certainly tried to cover them all in one motion, which I think will be quite complex and difficult to deal with in its entirety. It would be an interesting thing to have a study and see where it all fits.
For the people watching at home who are trying to understand how the House of Commons processes work, M-300 is only a motion. It is a general expression of desires and intents. It is not a bill and would never become a bill. It would never become a law unless the government chose to introduce it as such and that is the core point of the motion. It is asking the government to introduce a bill that would increase all of the areas I have referred to. If this motion were to pass and as time passes, it would not actually force the government to do anything. I say this just so we are honest and not misleading those who are watching to think that if the government were to do this, we would suddenly get all those increases. It does not quite work that simply. This is just the beginning of a process, asking the government to introduce a bill that would do that.
Seniors across Canada need and deserve our help to ensure their dignity and quality of life, especially in these tough economic times. My colleagues and I are committed, and I believe we are all committed in the House, to working very hard on behalf of Canada's seniors. We will strive to protect their pensions and invest in their well-being to our greatest possible extent. The Liberal Party has a strong record of enhancing benefits for seniors. We know that seniors need and deserve our help to ensure their health, security, dignity and quality of life.
When I go back to my riding every weekend, I end up meeting with lots of seniors and talking to them about a variety of issues. I rarely fail to hear about how difficult it is to manage. I asked a question in the House today on behalf of Mario, one of my constituents, who called and said that his property taxes, hydro and gas bills are going up. He asked me how he was supposed to pay all of these bills. His pension is not going up. If it goes up 1.2% or whatever the cost of living is, that clearly is not enough to offset the many expenses that he is trying to deal with. Of course, seniors are going to come to their parliamentarians or elected officials and ask for help because they cannot manage on whatever they have in their savings plus their pensions and the GIS. It is not enough.
Hence, the motion I am speaking to today again tries to address many of those needs that I expect my colleague has heard in her own riding while talking to her own constituents. In doing a bit of an analysis on this motion, it looks like it would cost well in excess of $1.5 billion over the current budget. As much as we would like to do a lot of things, I think we have to be practical and reasonable in many aspects of looking at these things.
The Bloc members will never be in government so they can introduce, say and ask anything they want. They do form a very useful purpose at times by flagging issues. They are raising issues of concern and it is our job to respond in the appropriate way.
At this particular time, when we are dealing with a recession, it would be extremely difficult, I would suggest, to find $1.5 billion, if not an extra $2 billion to meet the needs no matter how much someone would want to do that.
Clearly, the motion could be referred to the human resources committee that would take a detailed look at just how we could more effectively benefit our seniors. Whether it was with this motion or in some other way, I think it is probably something that all of us would like to see done.
I have talked to some of the members of the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons With Disabilities and they have indicated their desire to look more intently on just what seniors are receiving and what we might be able to do to assist them.
We certainly would have preferred it if the Conservatives had not spent the cupboard bare with their previous budgets and their fall economic and fiscal updates, eliminating the rainy day fund that we always had there for difficult times. It would have been helpful if that had been there, but it is not there any longer and we have to deal with what we have to deal with.
The previous Liberal government made great progress for Canada's seniors. Our constant goal was to enhance the quality of life for all seniors. We must always remember that this great country we live in was built by seniors that we have today.
I am currently the critic for veterans as well as seniors and pensions. Talking to many of these veterans has been quite an experience, listening to the stories they tell me, and being reminded about just who built this country that we get to enjoy and that we will leave for our grandchildren to enjoy.
In the last Liberal budget 2005, we had many great initiatives for Canadian seniors. Our budget made significant investments in seniors' programs from health care to income security, from retirement savings to assistance for caregivers. That is another very important area that needs some serious attention from the government as well. We have an aging population and more and more caregivers are also struggling themselves. We need to be addressing that area.
The guaranteed income supplement provides low income seniors with a benefit that ensures a basic level of income throughout their retirement years. In 2004 the Liberal government made a commitment to increase the guaranteed income supplement by $1.5 billion over the next five years. However, budget 2005 went above and beyond that commitment. We announced that we would increase the guaranteed income supplement benefits for low income seniors not by $1.5 billion but by $2.7 billion over two years.
It was a period of good economic times. We were managing the country well. The economy was strong and we had surpluses. We chose to turn around and put that surplus toward seniors, so that they would have the benefits and we would assist their lives and make their quality of life a little more comfortable.
Seniors are and want to remain very active members of our society. We introduced the new horizons program, which had been a program around 10 years ago that was reintroduced by the Liberals in order to provide opportunities to make sure that seniors were having the opportunity to get out to exercise and socialize. A big important part of wellness is the ability to be out and interact with other people, attend bingo games and card games. I visit my riding frequently and visit the seniors who seem to be having the time of their lives, going on trips and enjoying themselves.
That budget also provided $13 million over five years to establish a new national seniors secretariat, so that we could focus more on just exactly what was going on with seniors. They continue to be very concerned about pensions, about the health care system, pharmacare, housing, and many of the difficulties that people face that are on a fixed income. Our government clearly was committed to all of these things.
In closing, the Liberal Party remains steadfast in our support for our seniors and ensuring the best quality of life possible for them. I would hope that our human resources committee is able to study some of these very issues.
As I said earlier, it is easy for the Bloc to come forward with these kinds of unrealistic motions because they know they will not have to be responsible at the end of the day.