Mr. Speaker, our country is recognized as having one of the best retirement income systems in the world. Last year, the old age security program provided nearly $42 billion in benefits to more than five million Canadians, including 1.7 million low-income pensioners.
In recent years, we increased the guaranteed income supplement with an investment of $300 million per year. That is the highest percentage increase for the lowest-income seniors in more than a quarter of a century.
Canada's public pensions have played a major role in reducing the incidence of poverty among seniors. The low-income rate for seniors has fallen from 21.4% in 1980 to 5.2% in 2011, one of the lowest rates in the industrial world.
Our government is committed to continually improving the programs we have for seniors and the benefits and services we provide our seniors. We are getting the job done for seniors across the country. We hope the NDP will support that.