Madam Speaker, OAS was never designed to be a complete retirement income in and of itself for seniors. It was to be in addition to the Canada pension plan and in addition to individuals' own savings. For those seniors who are at the poorest level, there is also the guaranteed income supplement to raise them out of the lowest poverty line.
OAS is only one part of our retirement income system. We also have RRSPs and the TFSA program. As is being debated this week, we are looking for the pooled retirement savings programs, which would be of benefit to millions of Canadians who now do not have access to employer funded pension schemes.