Madam Speaker, the introduction of Motion No. 300 is ambitious and broad, displaying a deep desire by the author to stand strong for our seniors population. In my opinion, the motivation behind such a motion comes from the complete and utter abandonment of seniors by the government over the past three years.
I would be remiss in my duties if I did not mention the income trusts flip-flop by the finance minister, a decision that ripped $35 billion from Canadian investors when it was announced on October 31, 2006.
To refresh the memory of the members of the House, income trusts, the income of which millions of Canadians relied on for financial support, were targeted because of the phantom tax leak. Never mind that the Bank of Montreal and the Royal Bank of Canada backed up a major independent study that found there was no income trust tax leakage, the finance minister obviously knew better.
At the end of the day, insurance and corporate lobbyists proved to be more important to the government than our seniors population. This was just the beginning of a long line of slaps in the face by the government.
People do not have to take my word for it, let me reference the study that was just released by the Senate's committee on aging, entitled “Canada's Aging Population: Seizing the Opportunity”. The findings are damning. Seniors face serious gaps in health care, housing, transportation and support systems.
One of the things the committee said it learned is, “Current income security measures for our poorest seniors are not meeting their basic needs”. Even more disgraceful is the statement in the final report that states, “The basic income levels provided by the old age security and the guaranteed income supplement do not even meet the poverty line”. Let me repeat that; they do not even meet the poverty line. Yet the government sits there, day after day, and promotes the minor concessions that it claims are supporting seniors.
Among the many recommendations made by the committee to the government is to ensure the financial security of Canadians by addressing the needs of older workers through pension and income security reforms. More specifically, the report recommends that the government increases the Canada pension plan benefits and bolsters the guaranteed income supplement. It also recommends that the government looks more closely at the idea of providing a guaranteed annual income for all Canadians.
As usual, this motion demonstrates that it is the Liberal Party that is taking up the cause against a sea of inaction by the current regime.
Just yesterday, there was an article in the Guelph Mercury paper that called our finance minister the Alfred E. Newman of Canadian politics because of his “what me worry” type of attitude. This is because of actions like travelling to Europe and telling the Canada-U.K. Chamber of Commerce in London, with a straight face, that relatively speaking this is a mild economic recession.
It is very easy to contrast this kind of record with that of the previous Liberal government.
In the last Liberal budget, in the year 2005, significant investments were made to seniors' programs, from health care to income security to beefing up seniors' savings capabilities. In 2004, the Liberal government pledged to increase the guaranteed income supplement by $1.5 billion, and in the 2005 budget, the figure was up to $2.7 billion.
There are plenty of great ideas and policy suggestions that could help guide the government towards supporting our seniors, for example, the recent suggestion by the C.D. Howe Institute to create a new savings vehicle called the Canada supplementary pension plan, or CSPP. It would be designed to respond to the estimated 3.5 million workers, 25% of the working public, who are on an inadequate retirement savings track.
The latest numbers of our seniors population, or those who are on the verge of becoming seniors, are staggering. There are 14.5 million Canadians who are 45 years of age or older, representing 42% of the total population. There are 4.6 million Canadians over the age of 65, making up 13.3% of the Canadian population.
The reason this motion tries to cram so many issues together is that seniors have been left without any sense of security, particularly in these troubling economic times. The motion has been written to inspire a government that is unable to recognize the realities of what seniors are facing. It has been written with the hope that it will galvanize action towards a population that will dominate the Canadian landscape in the decades to come. Mostly, though, it has been written because there is currently no leadership on this issue.
However unrealistic my colleague from the Bloc may be in packaging these issues into one, I can sympathize with her. I, too, encounter seniors every day in my riding of Newton—North Delta who are desperate for their issues and concerns to be taken seriously.
Let me conclude by putting a few open-ended questions to this Prime Minister.
If the Prime Minister cannot or is unwilling to take a genuine interest in the fate of seniors, then who else is at risk of falling through the huge cracks in the Conservative government?
More importantly, if betraying seniors is something your government considers as standard practice, then how can Canadians trust the government to offer an adequate response to their issues?
These are questions that everyone, particularly seniors, should carefully think about the next time they step behind the curtain to cast their ballot.
I appreciate the opportunity to share my views with the House.