Mr. Speaker, it is clear that in a rural area and sometimes even in an urban environment, but primarily in a small town quite far from any services, life is extremely difficult for seniors. If you can perhaps no longer drive your car, it is extremely difficult to maintain your autonomy, because there is no public transportation. It is difficult to get to medical care.
If you are a woman, as I was saying, you are much more likely to be poor. This is primarily because of the inequalities that continue to exist in terms of pay equity in our society. Therefore, when you are an elderly woman, you have a lot less money. That is why it is so important to maintain and even increase pensions, the guaranteed income supplement, old age security and so on. These are extremely important programs because, frankly, they help people who might otherwise lose their independence. This is what these programs are for. They exist to help these people.