Mr. Chair, I would like to thank the member for York West for her tremendous work on pensions over the years. I would like to make two comments related to her question.
The first is related to a unique issue that I have not mentioned tonight. It came from an aboriginal first nation that would like to provide tax-free support to its very poor elders. It suggested that other governments can give certain tax-free benefits, so why can it not? This should certainly be up for discussion.
She mentioned the cost of living. As the official opposition critic for the Arctic and the north, this is a very important point. People may appear to have similar wages right across Canada, but the cost of living in the high Arctic, for instance, is two to four times what it is elsewhere in Canada. In the north people can pay $20.00 for a jug of milk. People living in the northern parts of provinces who may appear to be equally as wealthy as everyone else can be living in abject poverty, with very limited pensions. Imagine the cost of heating when temperatures dip to 30° and 40° below zero, or the cost of shipping food by air all that distance. Those are things that definitely have to be taken into consideration for the seniors and elders of northern Canada and the Arctic.